We are currently in the early stages of redesigning and rewriting our
product Cost Advantage (currently written in Common Lisp), an expert
system shell for designing knowledge bases for use by mechanical
design engineers to provide cost and manufacturability feedback early
in the design process. We are not 100% positive that we will remain
in Lisp, but the probability is fairly high.
We curently have a lot of home-grown components, and would like to
look for products/modules that we could use to take their place. In
looking at various expert-system shells or components, most of them
seem geared towards writing *applications*; what we are producing is a
tool geared towards the CAD world, for others to write applications
in. Specifically, our model builders define things like:
o class/frame hierarchies
o active equations to compute values
o rules to post messages and compute values
o on-line help
So for example, we here at Cognition don't need to *use* a rule-based
system, but we need to provide that capability to our users, and
for example, provide a GUI layer on top of it, to make it easier for
non-programmer types to use.
In addition, we would also like to provide a GUI building tool and
possibly an OODB for storage of model and instance information.
Any pointers, commercial or free-ware, would be greatly appreciated.
Please email me directly, and I'll summarize and post the results.
--
David Kuznick (·····@ci.com) Senior Technical Staff
Cognition Corporation
209 Burlington Road
Bedford, MA 01730
Voice: 617-271-9300 x225 Fax: 617-271-0813