Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.3 4.3bsd-beta 6/6/85; site ucbvax.ARPA Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!ucbvax!sri-ai.arpa!AIList-REQUEST From: AIList-REQUEST@SRI-AI.ARPA (AIList Moderator Kenneth Laws) Newsgroups: net.ai Subject: AIList Digest V3 #123 Message-ID: <8509181652.AA20967@UCB-VAX.ARPA> Date: Mon, 16-Sep-85 13:07:00 EDT Article-I.D.: UCB-VAX.8509181652.AA20967 Posted: Mon Sep 16 13:07:00 1985 Date-Received: Fri, 20-Sep-85 04:19:15 EDT Sender: daemon@ucbvax.ARPA Reply-To: AIList@SRI-AI Organization: University of California at Berkeley Lines: 343 AIList Digest Monday, 16 Sep 1985 Volume 3 : Issue 123 Today's Topics: Linguistics - TaleSpin Story Generator Reference, Humor - Psychotherapy, AI Tools - LISP to C & More Xerox Announcements at IJCAI & New Lists for TI Explorer Discussion & Connectionist Network Simulator & Discussion of AI Languages, Information Retrieval - Interactive Encyclopedia & Technical Foreign Language Material ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu 12 Sep 85 12:00:25-PDT From: Matt Heffron Subject: Re:TaleSpin Re: Children's story generator <7-Sep-85 Steve.Hoffman@CMU-CS-K> The program you're interested in is TALE-SPIN, by James Meehan. He is currently at: James R. Meehan Cognitive Systems Inc. 234 Church St. New Haven, CT 06510 MEEHAN@YALE - Matt Heffron ------------------------------ Date: Monday, 9-Sep-85 16:26:12-GMT From: GORDON JOLY (on ERCC DEC-10) Subject: Analysis of ... Re: Expert Systems In Psychiatry (Vol 3 # 116) Psychotherapy is debugging for humans... Gordon Joly. [I'm not sure what the intent of this message is. I'll pass it along under a "humor" label, but to avoid any "Polynomial" debacle would like to point out that psychotherapy is not a joking matter. -- KIL] ------------------------------ Date: Thu 12 Sep 85 12:03:19-PDT From: Matt Heffron Subject: Re: LISP to C Re: Lisp to C <20-Aug-85 duke@mitre.ARPA> I know of (no endorsement, no experience with) a system called SILL which is built on top of PSL on the Apollo. It can "... output standard PASCAL (or other conventional languages). This capability enables the user to port SILL developed code to other environments." Contact: SILMA Incorporated 1800 Embarcadero Palo Alto, CA 94303 (415)-493-0145 -- Matt Heffron From: Matt Heffron : Beckman Instruments Inc. ------------------------------ Date: 12 Sep 85 15:12 PDT From: Fischer.pa@Xerox.ARPA Subject: More Xerox announcements at IJCAI The 1185 and 1186, though they can run IBM-PC software, do not use the 8086 to run Interlisp. The primary processor is microprogrammable, constructed using bitslice chips. A second IO processor is, in fact, an 8086. IBM compatability is provided by a yet third processor, an 8086, on a plug in board. Performance is about 15% greater overall than the Dandelion; we're still benchmarking. These machines also have a new larger 19" screen availible as an option, with more pixels at the same density. Also announced was a version of Quintus Prolog for D-machines, using microcode support, which benchmarks at 51,000 LIPS. Xerox Commonlisp was announced for 2nd quarter 1986. It is to be fully integrated with the Interlisp environment. (ron) ------------------------------ Date: Fri 13 Sep 85 15:16:25-PDT From: Richard Acuff Subject: New Lists for TI Explorer Discussion In order to facilitate information exchange among DARPA sponsored projects using TI Explorers, two ArpaNet mailing lists are being created. INFO-EXPLORER will be used for general information distribution, such as operational questions, or announcing new generally available packages or tools. BUG-EXPLORER will be used to report problems with Explorer software, as well as fixes. Requests to be added to or deleted from these lists should be sent to INFO-EXPLORER-REQUEST or BUG-EXPLORER-REQUEST, respectively. All addresses are at SUMEX-AIM.ARPA. These lists signify no commitment from Texas Instruments or Stanford University. Indeed, there is no guarantee that TI representatives will read the lists. The idea of the lists is to provide communication among the users of Explorers. -- Rich Acuff Stanford KSL ------------------------------ Date: 13 Sep 1985 1557-EDT (Friday) From: Hon Wai Chun Subject: Connectionist Network Simulator CONNECTIONIST NETWORK TEACHING / LEARNING TOOL A connectionist network teaching / learning tool called AINET-1 is available for distribution (educational and research purposes only) from the Computer Science Department, Brandeis University. AINET-1 is a graphic-oriented software package which can be used to interactively create, manipulate, and experiment with connectionist networks. Most commands are conveniently driven by a mouse. Nodes in AINET-1 are shaded to reflect their activation levels. Once a network is created, the user can run an animated simulation (network relaxation). In the simulation, AINET-1 will change the various node shadings as the activation levels change during each run cycle. After a simulation, the user can plot the results or display tables of previous activation levels. Networks can be stored into binary files and reloaded later for further editing. AINET-1 is intended to be used mainly as a learning tool to give the user a flavor of how connectionist networks behave. A more sophisticated version, called AINET-2 (under development), may be useful for development work. AINET-1 is written in Symbolics Common Lisp and presently runs on Symbolics Lisp machines (Release 6.0). The system is offered on a non-commercial, non-disclosure, and as-is basis for a nominal fee. The fee is $150 for universities, and $250.00 for laboratories. Interested parties should send requests to (or call). Hon Wai Chun hon@brandeis.csnet Computer Science Brandeis University Ford 232A Waltham, MA 02254 617-647-2650 or 617-647-2119 (main-office) ------------------------------ Date: 14 Sep 1985 07:21 EDT (Sat) From: Wayne McGuire Subject: Lisp vs. Prolog vs. ? Predicting what language will be most used for AI is problematic since there seems to be little agreement about what AI is. Let's assume, however, that over the next decade or two ''AI'' will refer primarily to expert systems. In that case, one might speculate that perhaps the bulk of AI code will be written neither in Lisp nor Prolog (not even an enhanced Prolog which can elegantly manipulate and coordinate in the same conceptual space multiple worlds, logics, and beliefs), but a higher-level language, perhaps using Lisp and/or Prolog as a base. One of the major tasks in the coming years will be tranferring the expert knowledge from many domains--economics, medicine, sociology, political science, literature, law, etc.--into expert systems. Experts in these fields have dedicated their lives to mastering their respective fields, not to learning the art of writing compact and elegant Lisp code. These experts are not computer scientists or even computer programmers. This situation implies three methods for transferring the knowledge of domain experts into computer programs: (1) Natural language understanding systems which can translate raw text directly into working knowledgebases. We probably won't see such systems on a large scale, which can operate with any degree of reliablity, for at least another twenty-five years, and perhaps much longer. (2) The laborious interviewing of domain experts by expert system experts (if you will), and the transcription of those interviews into programs. (3) The direct encoding of knowledge into expert systems by domain experts themselves. If the third method does indeed become the preferred method for writing expert programs, then whatever higher-level language and user interface best supports that activity (and I doubt it will be Lisp or Prolog, which are relatively low-level) will probably become the language which is most widely used for AI. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 26 Aug 85 08:22:25 edt From: Ben Shneiderman Subject: The Interactive Encyclopedia System (TIES) [Excerpted from IRList 1.8 by Laws@SRI-AI.] The Interactive Encyclopedia System (TIES) --- ----------- ------------ ------ ------ Ben Shneiderman, Department of Computer Science Janis Morariu, College of Library and Information Services University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742 June 1985 The Interactive Encyclopedia System (TIES) has been under development at the University of Maryland since Fall 1983. It allows novice users to explore information resources in an easy and appealing manner. They merely touch (or use arrow keys to move a light bar onto) topics that interest them and a brief definition appears at the bottom of the screen. The users may continue read- ing or ask for details about the selected topic. An article about a topic may be one or more screens long. As users traverse articles, TIES keeps the path and allows easy reversal, building confidence and a sense of control. Advanced features include the ability to view an index of articles or print out arti- cles of interest. [...] The TIES authoring software guides the author in writing a title, brief defin- ition (5-25 words), text (50-1000 words, typically), and synonyms for each article title. The author marks references in the text by surround them with a pair of tildes. TIES collects all references, prompts the user for synonym relationships, maintains a list of articles, and allows editing, addition, and deletion of articles. A simple word processor is embedded in the authoring software, but users can create articles on their own word processor, if they wish. There are no commands to memorize, every operation is done by selection from options on the screen. [...] In the study comparing the arrow keys (maybe better termed "jump" keys because the cursor would jump to the closest target in the direction pressed) to the mouse, the arrow keys proved to be and average of 15% faster and preferred by almost 90% of the subjects. We conjecture that when there are a small number of targets on the screen and when jump keys can be implemented, they provide a rapid, predictable, and appealing mechanism for selection. [...] We did find touchscreen was easier to teach people than arrow keys, and that arrow keys were a solid winner against the mouse when there are a small number of large targets on the screen. -- Ben Shneiderman [A mouse could be programmed for similar "jump selection", of course. It would be interesting to know whether this would be more distracting than helpful. -- KIL] ------------------------------ Date: 13 Sep 1985 1209-PDT (Friday) From: eugene@AMES-NAS.ARPA (Eugene Miya) Subject: Technical foreign language material Lately, there have been significant technical advances from non-English speaking countries: Japan and the Continent. How many know the Japanese equivalent to the CACM? What is the German equivalent of the IEEE? It is too easy to say that such organizations and publications are not significant. We have been accused of parochialism. Our problems in the computer industry are rather unique as colleagues in other fields such as nuclear fusion report that most of their colleagues are, for all practical purposes, forced to come to the U.S. This is not the case with computing Just as we have file servers and process servers, we have a distributed system. Our greatest resource are not the machines, but the people with special skills. To this end I propose the following: Propose: 1) to identify individuals who are capable of providing simple translation. It would help if the Universities could do this. Perhaps, Universities could get assistance from foreign language departments. 2) Identify various foreign language publications of technical interest. Quickly identify articles of wide interest. This information could be posted to general interest Usenet newsgroups such as net.research and net.mag as well as the special interest groups such as the AI List, net.lang, and so forth. We should not create news groups, but work on top of existing groups. 3) Help fund subscription and translations. Perhaps, individuals without technical translation expertise can get together to pay for technical translations [commercial], and/or help fund the subscription of those with technical translation expertise. Dymond@nbs-vms.ARPA has started an info-japan and a nihongo discussion group on the ARPAnet, but it would be difficult to get Usenet participation. I specifically do not want to create new newsgroups. This structure can be placed atop the existing news group structure. The Usenet has several advantages for the circulation of this type of material: 1) it has the links into Japan, Korea, Australia, Germany, France, and the rest of Europe not on the ARPAnet. 2) since there is no global authority, industrial companies can participate more easily. 3) There are a diversity of news groups which make news dissemination easier: net.mag for instance is used for posting the TOCs of various publications, ideal for this type of dissemination. Other significant groups include: net.ai, net.cse, net.announce, net.physics, net.arch, net.math, net.mag, net.research, net.bio, net.graphics, net.wanted, net.nlang It appears our most critical needs are in the Eastern Asian languages such as Japanese, Korean, and Chinese. Other useful work would include French, German, and the other European languages. We have to look to the Universities for much of our assistance, but private organizations and government can also help. We can certainly make inquires. The Usenet extends into Japan, France, and other non-English native countries. We must take benefit of these contributors. Similarly, we can contribute to these countries by tagging significant English language documents. I am willing to act as a clearing house for determining finding individuals and groups, and specific journals. For this purpose, I am giving my address an ARPA/uucp gateway. Send the mail inquiries there. More in a couple of weeks. From the Rock of Ages Home for Retired Hackers: --eugene miya NASA Ames Research Center {hplabs,ihnp4,dual,hao,decwrl,allegra}!ames!amelia!eugene eugene@ames-nas ------------------------------ End of AIList Digest ******************** Brought to you by Super Global Mega Corp .com