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From: skumar@hocus.att.com (Swaminathan Ravikumar)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.shells
Subject: Need help in the differences between RDBMS and Expert Systems
Keywords: RDBMS, Expert Sytem
Message-ID: <6210@uklirb.informatik.uni-kl.de>
Date: 17 Jul 90 20:18:17 GMT
Sender: shell@uklirb.informatik.uni-kl.de
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Lines: 21
Approved: shell@informatik.uni-kl.de
Posted-Date: Fri Jul 20 11:47:13 GMT 1990
Apparently-To: shell@uklirb.uucp

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