From: gary
Subject: KnowledgeWorks and Common Prolog
Date: 
Message-ID: <3632d8bf.0307080952.355fa0c7@posting.google.com>
Just out of curiousity, does anyone know of the history of the
KnowledgeWorks and Common Prolog module included with LispWorks
Enterprise.  I'm interested in stuff like:

1.  When was it first released as a product.
2.  Who is the principal author (and whether they have any online
published articles).
3.  Whether there are any case studies available using the module.

Also, how do people usually go about learning OPS5 these days?

Thanks,

From: Jason Trenouth
Subject: Re: KnowledgeWorks and Common Prolog
Date: 
Message-ID: <bUjPa.14760$4O4.1567505@newsfep2-win.server.ntli.net>
"gary" <··············@yahoo.com> wrote in message
·································@posting.google.com...
> Just out of curiousity, does anyone know of the history of the
> KnowledgeWorks and Common Prolog module included with LispWorks
> Enterprise.  I'm interested in stuff like:
>
> 1.  When was it first released as a product.
> 2.  Who is the principal author (and whether they have any online
> published articles).
> 3.  Whether there are any case studies available using the module.
>
> Also, how do people usually go about learning OPS5 these days?
>
> Thanks,

Hi,

KW was first released as a product in 1991 I think.

There were several original developers of KW. I think Jerry Jackson wrote
the bulk of the Common Prolog engine, and David Plowman wrote the OPS5
engine. Others, like myself and David Deterding, contributed to the IDE and
anciliary functions. Chris Kobryn probably managed the project, althought I
can't remember exactly.

I'm not sure about online published articles. I presume you mean articles
about KW or some aspect of it?
Apart from the programming manual I don't think that there is any other
published material. Although later, with Chris Kobryn, I published an
article in PC AI about 'agents' using Common Prolog.

So  where are they now? I love nostagia, but it ain't what it used to be.
:-j

During Jerry's later travels he worked at Sun (although he is no longer
there) and co-wrote a book on Java:
"Java by Example" -     http://sunsite.ee/books/books/Jackson/Jackson.html

Chris went on to become an OO luminary promoting CORBA, UML, and OOP stuff
like that. (See him quoted here last year about UML 2.0:
http://www.nsda.net/home.asp?artId=667)

David D. went to teach linguistics in Singpore.

David P. moved into CAD, a favourite old Cambridge techology scene, and is
now involved in a custom chip startup.

I moved around, managed LispWorks, developed in Dylan and Java/CORBA, and
now I manage Postscript/PDF projects.

Chris and Jerry were Yanks, while the two Davids and myself were Brits.

You'll have to ask the vendor Xanalys for case studies or testimonials.
Personally, I remember doing some technical support on some conversions for
customers who were migrating from other Lisp-based expert system shells.

HTH

__Jason
From: Jason Trenouth
Subject: Re: KnowledgeWorks and Common Prolog
Date: 
Message-ID: <ullv6rc9i.fsf@GlobalGraphics.com>
>>>>> On 8 Jul 2003 10:52:22 -0700, ··············@yahoo.com (gary) said:

    Gary> Just out of curiousity, does anyone know of the history of the
    Gary> KnowledgeWorks and Common Prolog module included with LispWorks
    Gary> Enterprise.  I'm interested in stuff like:

    Gary> 1.  When was it first released as a product.
    Gary> 2.  Who is the principal author (and whether they have any online
    Gary> published articles).
    Gary> 3.  Whether there are any case studies available using the module.

    Gary> Also, how do people usually go about learning OPS5 these days?

Hi,

Ah. I love nostagia, but it ain't what it used to be. :-j

KW was first released as a product in 1991 I think.

There were several original developers of KW. I think Jerry Jackson
wrote the bulk of the Common Prolog engine, and David Plowman wrote
the OPS5 engine. Others, like myself and David Deterding, contributed
to the IDE and anciliary functions. Chris Kobryn probably managed the
project, although I can't remember exactly.

I'm not sure about online published articles. I presume you mean
articles about KW or some aspect of it?

Apart from the programming manual I don't think that there is any
other published material. Although later, with Chris Kobryn, I
published an article in PC AI about 'agents' using Common Prolog.

So where are they now? 

During Jerry's later travels he worked at Sun (although he is no
longer there) and co-wrote a book on Java called "Java by Example" -
http://sunsite.ee/books/books/Jackson/Jackson.html

Chris went on to become an OO luminary promoting CORBA, UML, and OOP
stuff like that. (Here he is quoted about UML 2.0 last year as Chief
Technologist at Telelogic: http://www.nsda.net/home.asp?artId=667)

David D. went to teach linguistics in Singpore.

David P. moved into CAD, a favourite old Cambridge techology scene, and is
now involved in a custom chip startup.

I moved around while staying put (very Zen that), managing LispWorks,
developing in Dylan, Java, and CORBA, and now managing Postscript/PDF
projects.

Chris and Jerry are Yanks, while the two Davids and myself are Brits.

You'll have to ask the vendor Xanalys for case studies or testimonials.
Personally, I remember doing some technical support on some conversions for
customers who were migrating from other Lisp-based expert system shells.

HTH

__Jason
From: Marco Antoniotti
Subject: Re: KnowledgeWorks and Common Prolog
Date: 
Message-ID: <3F0D8073.40602@cs.nyu.edu>
Speaking of LW Common Prolog.... (or of the devil :) ).

I am using LW these days and... I just had a student implement a simple 
NL interface for a tool we have.

I wondered if LW Common Prolog had a DCG parser in it, but couldn't find 
traces of it in the docs.

Did anything like that existed?

It also looks like that LW Common Prolog is actually a WAM-like 
compiler.  Is that true?

Cheers

marco


Jason Trenouth wrote:
>>>>>>On 8 Jul 2003 10:52:22 -0700, ··············@yahoo.com (gary) said:
>>>>>
> 
>     Gary> Just out of curiousity, does anyone know of the history of the
>     Gary> KnowledgeWorks and Common Prolog module included with LispWorks
>     Gary> Enterprise.  I'm interested in stuff like:
> 
>     Gary> 1.  When was it first released as a product.
>     Gary> 2.  Who is the principal author (and whether they have any online
>     Gary> published articles).
>     Gary> 3.  Whether there are any case studies available using the module.
> 
>     Gary> Also, how do people usually go about learning OPS5 these days?
> 
> Hi,
> 
> Ah. I love nostagia, but it ain't what it used to be. :-j
> 
> KW was first released as a product in 1991 I think.
> 
> There were several original developers of KW. I think Jerry Jackson
> wrote the bulk of the Common Prolog engine, and David Plowman wrote
> the OPS5 engine. Others, like myself and David Deterding, contributed
> to the IDE and anciliary functions. Chris Kobryn probably managed the
> project, although I can't remember exactly.
> 
> I'm not sure about online published articles. I presume you mean
> articles about KW or some aspect of it?
> 
> Apart from the programming manual I don't think that there is any
> other published material. Although later, with Chris Kobryn, I
> published an article in PC AI about 'agents' using Common Prolog.
> 
> So where are they now? 
> 
> During Jerry's later travels he worked at Sun (although he is no
> longer there) and co-wrote a book on Java called "Java by Example" -
> http://sunsite.ee/books/books/Jackson/Jackson.html
> 
> Chris went on to become an OO luminary promoting CORBA, UML, and OOP
> stuff like that. (Here he is quoted about UML 2.0 last year as Chief
> Technologist at Telelogic: http://www.nsda.net/home.asp?artId=667)
> 
> David D. went to teach linguistics in Singpore.
> 
> David P. moved into CAD, a favourite old Cambridge techology scene, and is
> now involved in a custom chip startup.
> 
> I moved around while staying put (very Zen that), managing LispWorks,
> developing in Dylan, Java, and CORBA, and now managing Postscript/PDF
> projects.
> 
> Chris and Jerry are Yanks, while the two Davids and myself are Brits.
> 
> You'll have to ask the vendor Xanalys for case studies or testimonials.
> Personally, I remember doing some technical support on some conversions for
> customers who were migrating from other Lisp-based expert system shells.
> 
> HTH
> 
> __Jason
From: Jason Trenouth
Subject: Re: KnowledgeWorks and Common Prolog
Date: 
Message-ID: <usmpdih0j.fsf@GlobalGraphics.com>
>>>>> On Thu, 10 Jul 2003 11:04:19 -0400, Marco Antoniotti
>>>>> <·······@cs.nyu.edu> said: 

Hi,

    Marco> Speaking of LW Common Prolog.... (or of the devil :) ).  I
    Marco> am using LW these days and... I just had a student
    Marco> implement a simple NL interface for a tool we have.

    Marco> I wondered if LW Common Prolog had a DCG parser in it, but
    Marco> couldn't find traces of it in the docs.

    Marco> Did anything like that existed?

I don't think Common Prolog shipped with a DCG parser, but CP can use
standard Edinburgh syntax and DCG is just syntatic sugar for normal
Prolog anyway. The DCG grammar can be transformed into pure Prolog by
Prolog itself. There are DCG parsers on the web.

Eg http://www.info.ucl.ac.be/people/PVR/tom_edcg.html

They should be portable to CP.

    Marco> It also looks like that LW Common Prolog is actually a
    Marco> WAM-like compiler.  Is that true?

Yes, it has WAM bits in it. In this respect, I believe Jerry was
influenced by the following book: "The Architecture of Symbolic
Computers" (McGraw-Hill Series in Supercomputing and Parallel
Processing) by Peter M. Kogge, which contains a description of the
Warren Abstract Machine among other things.

__Jason