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From: marti@mint.inf.ethz.ch (Robert Marti)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: How far can expert systems go
Keywords: expert sysems
Message-ID: <29235@neptune.inf.ethz.ch>
Date: 5 Jun 91 14:19:09 GMT
References: <2948@dsac.dla.mil>
Sender: news@neptune.inf.ethz.ch
Reply-To: marti@mint.inf.ethz.ch (Robert Marti)
Organization: Departement Informatik, ETH, Zurich
Lines: 23

In article <2948@dsac.dla.mil> ntm1169@dsac.dla.mil (Mott Given) writes:
>[...]  AI tools can be used in conventional programming instead
>of languages like Cobol to speed up software development; eg.  American
>Express developed an application in 6 months using IBM's Expert System
>Environment (a mainframe expert system shell) instead of the 3 years it 
>would have required with other languages.

I have been arguing that using AI tools speeds up software development
myself.  Still, how do you (or American Express, if you prefer) know
that developing the above mentioned application in "another language"
would have required the three years you claim?  What kind of application
was this?  And what is "another language", for that matter?  Cobol?  C?
Pascal?  An object-oriented language such as C++ or Smalltalk?  Lisp?
Prolog?  A so-called 4GL?  HyperCard?

Does anyone know of serious scientific experiments which have compared
the different languages?  (In a SIGMOD Record a couple of years back,
someone compared Lisp and C++ but that's all I'm aware of ...)

Robert Marti                      |  Phone:    +41 1 254 72 60
Institut fur Informationssysteme  |  FAX:      +41 1 262 39 73
ETH-Zentrum                       |  E-Mail:   marti@inf.ethz.ch
CH-8092 Zurich, Switzerland       |