Expert System Shell Flexibility: Best Case Study

Abstract

Contemporary expert system shells support the development of isolated problem-solvers, which accept particular classes of problems, reason about them, perhaps request additional information, and eventually produce solutions. Although they exhibit important aspect of intelligence evocative to human knowledge and heuristic problem-solving skills, they only perform a narrow range of reasoning producing stereotypical responses to a predetermined set of situations. By contrast, human beings are flexible problem solvers that continuously adapt to the demands and opportunities presented by the complex, heterogeneous and/or dynamic environment. A flexible expert system must be capable to perform multiple reasoning tasks, involving different problems, problem domains, and problem-solving methods. The generality and flexibility of BEST environment present the first-time application developer with numerous implementation choices, providing a wide range of options and capabilities, what significantly increases the productivity of BEST programmers and improves the performance of the application they produce.