Knowledge Engineering Environment (KEE) is a frame-based development tool for

expert system In artificial intelligence, an expert system is a computer system emulating the decision-making ability of a human expert. Expert systems are designed to solve complex problems by reasoning through bodies of knowledge, represented mainly as if� ...

s. It was developed and sold by IntelliCorp, and first released in 1983. It ran on

Lisp machine Lisp machines are general-purpose computers designed to efficiently run Lisp as their main software and programming language, usually via hardware support. They are an example of a high-level language computer architecture, and in a sense, the ...

s, and was later ported to Lucid

Common Lisp Common Lisp (CL) is a dialect of the Lisp programming language, published in ANSI standard document ''ANSI INCITS 226-1994 (S20018)'' (formerly ''X3.226-1994 (R1999)''). The Common Lisp HyperSpec, a hyperlinked HTML version, has been derived fro ...

with the CLX

library A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vir ...

, an

X Window System The X Window System (X11, or simply X) is a windowing system for bitmap displays, common on Unix-like operating systems. X provides the basic framework for a GUI environment: drawing and moving windows on the display device and interacting wit ...

(X11) interface for Common Lisp. This version was available on several different UNIX

workstation A workstation is a special computer designed for technical or scientific applications. Intended primarily to be used by a single user, they are commonly connected to a local area network and run multi-user operating systems. The term ''workstat ...

s. On KEE, several extensions were offered: * Simkit, a frame-based simulation library * KEEconnection,

database connection A database connection is a facility in computer science that allows client software to talk to database server software, whether on the same machine or not. A connection is required to send commands and receive answers, usually in the form of a r ...

between the frame system and

relational database A relational database is a (most commonly digital) database based on the relational model of data, as proposed by E. F. Codd in 1970. A system used to maintain relational databases is a relational database management system (RDBMS). Many relatio ...

s In KEE, frames are called ''units''. Units are used for both individual instances and classes. Frames have ''slots'' and slots have ''facets''. Facets can describe, for example, a slot's expected values, its working value, or its inheritance rule. Slots can have multiple values. Behavior can be implemented using a

message passing In computer science, message passing is a technique for invoking behavior (i.e., running a program) on a computer. The invoking program sends a message to a process (which may be an actor or object) and relies on that process and its supporting i ...

model. KEE provides an extensive

graphical user interface The GUI ( "UI" by itself is still usually pronounced . or ), graphical user interface, is a form of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices through graphical icons and audio indicator such as primary notation, inste ...

(GUI) to create, browse, and manipulate frames. KEE also includes a frame-based rule system. In the KEE knowledge base, rules are frames. Both

forward chaining Forward chaining (or forward reasoning) is one of the two main methods of reasoning when using an inference engine and can be described logically as repeated application of ''modus ponens''. Forward chaining is a popular implementation strategy ...

and

backward chaining Backward chaining (or backward reasoning) is an inference method described colloquially as working backward from the goal. It is used in automated theorem provers, inference engines, proof assistants, and other artificial intelligence application ...

inference Inferences are steps in reasoning, moving from premises to logical consequences; etymologically, the word '' infer'' means to "carry forward". Inference is theoretically traditionally divided into deduction and induction, a distinction that in ...

are available. KEE supports non-monotonic reasoning through the concepts of ''worlds''. Worlds allow providing alternative slot-values of frames. Through an assumption-based truth or

reason maintenance {{more footnotes, date=September 2009 Reason maintenanceDoyle, J., 1983. The ins and outs of reason maintenance, in: Proceedings of the Eighth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence - Volume 1, IJCAI’83. Morgan Kaufmann Publish ...

system, inconsistencies can be detected and analyzed. ''ActiveImages'' allows graphical displays to be attached to slots of Units. Typical examples are buttons, dials, graphs, and histograms. The graphics are also implemented as Units via ''KEEPictures'', a frame-based graphics library.

References

External links

An Assessment of Tools for Building Large Knowledge-Based Systems
{{Lisp programming language Knowledge engineering Knowledge representation Common Lisp (programming language) software

See also

References

External links