A Tool for Building Second Generation Expert Systems

Abstract

The demand for second generation expert systems will soon bring forward the demand for tools to build them. ZDEST-2 is built to test the authors ' ideas on what characteristics such tools should have and how to reflect them consistently within a system. New concepts such as three-level control scheme and 3-D explanation are introduced;multiple representation methods and inference engines are offered and integrated. The most distinguished characteristics of ZDEST - 2 are: (1) It is a general tool suitable for building var i ous domain oriented expert systems<ESsl. (2) The ESs built by it can fully reflect the nature of applicated domains. (3) Welldeveloped environment is provided for the building and using of ESs. (4) A user friendly interface is emphasized, explanations can be tailored to the elaboration needed, and, external procedure accesses are allowed. This paper gives a quite detailed description about how ZDEST-2 gains such characteristics.