Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!jarthur!usc!cs.utexas.edu!rutgers!att!cbnewsh!skumar
From: skumar@cbnewsh.att.com (swaminathan.ravikumar)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Need help in differences between RDBMS and Expert Systems
Keywords: RDBMS, Expert System
Message-ID: <1990Jul17.201150.5881@cbnewsh.att.com>
Date: 17 Jul 90 20:11:50 GMT
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Lines: 22


Could someone explain the differences between Relational
DBMS and Expert Systems. I would like to know the kinds of
things that cannot be done with RDBMS for which you need Expert
Systems Technology. 

When I look at most of the Expert System Shells they provide a
syntax for representing the domain specific data (or knowledge)
and a way to use the data (conditional knowledge or inference 
mechanism). Can't the same thing be achieved with tables and
queries in a RDBMS. Is the chaining through conditional knowledge
possible in ES is missing in RDBMS?

I always have trouble in explaining the differences between the
two when someone asks. I have heard people saying relational
algebra cannot do recursion (I don't know what this means). 
I would appreciate any clarification on this from the netters.

Thanks.

-- ravi
skumar@hocus.att.com