🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <5421@hubcap.clemson.edu> billwolf%hazel.cs.clemson.edu@hubcap.clemson.edu (William Thomas Wolfe,2847,) writes:


	...
      Not some Madison Avenue hype, but the actual project objective:

	...

	 The objective of the Reuseability Library Framework project is to
	 develop this essential knowledge-based foundations technology for
	 building _intelligent_librarians_, and to demonstrate the use of
	 this technology by building an example library for the domain of
	...

      On the contrary:

	 The initial librarian design will be a prototype that supports
	 interactive search through a particular library taxonomy.  Component 
	...

note the sudden shift from the past to the future tense.

	...

	[ with regard to the automatic test plan generator ]

      It's a mechanism:

	 [The test plan assistant] is motivated by two factors, the need
	 to support black box testing of Ada modules, and the parts 
	 engineering and qualification process for Ada parts to be inserted
	 into reuseability libraries.  [It] requires a network-based  
	 structural model of an Ada subprogram interface, and using actions
	 provided by AdaTAU rule bases, queries the user for implicit
	 assumptions about the unit under test (such as parameter
	 interdependencies).  [It] produces a structured set of test
	 specifications where the set has been pruned by built-in heuristics
	 and user-specified choices.

	 In addition to a direct representation of the Ada type hierarchy
	 as a semantic network via AdaKNET, [it] will utilize testing
	 heuristics associated with various data types, as well as general
	 rules drawn from the experiences of veteran Ada programmers.  The
	 knowledge base built to support [the test plan assistant] should
	 be reuseable by other "smart" tools, and [the test plan assistant]
	 will itself be absorbed in the Librarian systems where additional
	 semantic information may be available from the library domain model.

this is fascinating; a test plan generator that doesn't need to know
what the unit under test is SUPPOSED TO DO.  this fits in well with 
the experience with the software qualification of magellan and space
telescope. 

	...
   > 
   > the implication that the qualifying librarian and the test plan
   > assistant are automated.  this is bullshit.

      No, this is fact.

see above.  on the other hand, if the qualifying librarian and the
test plan generator can independently and automatically qualify and
generate tests for arbitrary ada software, then they are automated.
if, on the other hand, they can't, then they are streamlined manual
procedures.

	...
      Both semantic nets and rule-based systems have been around for years,
      and thousands (if not millions) of them exist.  Your comments are 
      indicative of the great extent to which you are unaware of the field. 

(is this what is meant by ad hominem attacks?)

both semantic nets and rule-based systems have been around for years,
and they still have the same severe limitations which prevent them
from doing more than very limited, well specified tasks.  the task of
generating complete test suites is something that expert people still
cannot do very well, much less something that expert systems can do.
likewise with deriving useable taxonomies in novel domains.

current ai approaches work well in limited domains, or in toy
applications (credit apps, translation of weather reports).  they work
less well (but still useably) where the situation is basically
somewhat open-ended, but enormous effort can be applied over a period
of years (technical translation using systran is the canonical
example).  in situations requiring open-world reasoning of any sort,
they still basically don't function.

ACE may well be a significant advance in the state of the art in
software development, but overselling ai techniques, and
overdescribing systems that may in some degree utilize them is very
counter-productive.  (for one thing, it brings flamers out of the
woodwork).

	...
      Essentially because that's not true.  I have used ACE; it's much
      more like an Ada-oriented operating system environment, running
      on top of something much less appropriate to the developer's needs 
      (e.g., Unix).

ahhhh..... now this sounds more like what the system really is.  with
this approach, we can talk less in terms of buzz-words, and more in
terms of how dynamic the development cycle can be made and whether
test-stubbing and pre-testing of components can be supported.  let's
hear from all the satisfied users of ACE.