Using the FOCUS architecture for developing knowledge-based front ends: a KBFE for forecasting

摘要

Statistical packages, optimisation packages and numerical-algorithms libraries are widely used in industrial and scientific development environments. They represent an enormous body of very complex and valuable knowledge that is becoming increasingly difficult to access. End users of these systems have to cope simultaneously with the intricacies of the software and with the increasing complexity of the application-domain problems. For these systems, knowledge-based front ends can provide co-operative assistance to end users, enabling them to use the systems successfully, while preserving the knowhow contained in the libraries and packages. They are also valuable in extending the software's working life.FOCUS is an ESPRIT-2 project whose goal is to develop generic tools and techniques for constructing and maintaining KBFEs for open user systems (e.g. libraries, reusable software components) and closed user systems (e.g. free-standing software, packages) for industrial and scientific applications. The participating partners are drawn from both industrial and academic institutions, providing a wide crosssection of software researchers, producers and users, and, although there are substantial research objectives, the project has taken a pragmatic approach, with the commercialisation of products developed playing a prominent role.The paper describes part of the work undertaken during the twenty-fourth month of the ESPRIT II project, which began in December 1988 and ran for four years. The aims of the FOCUS project are stated, and a core element of the emerging FOCUS design strategy is described, namely a separable architecture for knowledge-based front ends, concentrating on the front-end harness, the problem solver and the back-end manager components. Some KBFEs developed using this architecture, and the tools created within the project that operate in the domain of forecasting, are also described.