Code4 Knowledge Server

March 1, 1994 - prototype interface - Denys Duchier

This interface was written only as a proof of concept. It does not accurately reflect the capabilities of a complete Code4 system. A Concept Hierarchy document shows you the specialization hierarchy under some concept. All the interesting statements about the concept can be found by following the Properties link. The Control Panel lets you modify some parameters affecting the display of hierarchies.

Part of the Botany Kb (2 kbs)

• Botany Knowledge Base - all biological entities
• Botany Knowledge Base - all top 4 levels

Loaded from the kb of Bruce Porter's research group at the University of Texas. Developed over about seven years with serious consultation from an expert biologist. Only two slices are shown: one kb shows the complete branch of all entities, the other shows all concepts in the top 4 levels.

Collections

Three views of the Collection hierarchy in Smalltalk: one as it is in Smalltalk, one according to William Cook's OOPSLA paper, and one by me, Doug Skuce. Intended to show how CODE can either assist in documenting an existing design, or comparing several designes, or to assist in developing a new one. Not complete. Uses a formal notation that is not described in the kb.

Dogs

A description of some kinds of dogs, done by Kristen Mackintosh, a student in Translation at U of O, as a first practice in using CODE.

Geology

A description of certain properties of rocks of practical interest to geologists, done by Boyan Brodaric, an employee of the Canadian Government Geological Survey. Done as part of a graduate course on knowledge engineering.

Matrices

This kb was developed by Mark Israel, a graduate student in the same course. Its purpose is to assist someone trying to decide which numerical method is best for a particular type of matrix. Hence you see a classification of matrices and of methods. The pointers (e.g. from a kind of matrix to a kind of method) unfortunately do not show because they are non-inheriting properties which in general do not appear in this initial Mosaic interface.

Optical4

This is a serious kb about concepts related to optical storage, e.g. CD- ROMs. It was developed by a team of terminologists over about two years, and is intended to assist a translator or writer who must deal with a document on this subject but who does not understand the subject. It represents a comprehensive assessment of all the important terms in this field. A number of non-technical properties of critical interest (e.g. what is the French translation for a term) do not appear because they are non-inheriting.

The Top Level Ontology Developed by Doug Skuce

This ontology has been a low priority background task of mine for about five years. Over the years, it has changed many times. The major sources of ideas include: Penman, Cyc, conceptual graphs, linguistic research such as that of Dixon, Lakoff, and Frawley (to name a few), various philosophical works, plus the general ai literature. It is far from complete, and has many problems: it is still evolving. It has been used mainly to help me understand some of these issues better, and a number of students have used it as a starting point when building a small kb. I am very interested in the problem of how we are going to reach agreement on such ontologies: for the moment, I see no way of doing this emerging from the fog. (See my paper in last year's Padova meeting, or my 1990 Banff paper.) All inquiries are welcome.