Ubuntu Manpage: clips - an expert system programming language

NAME

       clips     - an expert system programming language

SYNOPSIS

       clips [ file.clp ]

DESCRIPTION

       CLIPS  is  a  productive  development  and  delivery  expert  system tool which provides a
       complete environment for the construction of rule  and/or  object  based  expert  systems.
       CLIPS  is  being  used  by  numerous  users  throughout  the  public and private community
       including: all NASA  sites  and  branches  of  the  military,  numerous  federal  bureaus,
       government contractors, universities, and many companies.  The key features of CLIPS are:

       Knowledge Representation
              CLIPS  provides  a  cohesive  tool  for  handling  a wide variety of knowledge with
              support for three different programming paradigms: rule-based, object-oriented  and
              procedural.   Rule-based   programming   allows  knowledge  to  be  represented  as
              heuristics, or "rules of thumb," which specify a set of actions to be performed for
              a given situation. Object-oriented programming allows complex systems to be modeled
              as modular components (which can be easily reused to  model  other  systems  or  to
              create  new  components). The procedural programming capabilities provided by CLIPS
              are similar to capabilities found in languages such as C, Pascal, Ada, and LISP.

       Portability
              CLIPS is written in C for portability and speed and  has  been  installed  on  many
              different  computers without code changes. Computers on which CLIPS has been tested
              include an IBM PC running DOS and Windows 95 and  a  Macintosh  running  MacOS  and
              Mach.   CLIPS  can  be ported to any system which has an ANSI compliant C compiler.
              CLIPS comes with all source code which can be modified or tailored to meet a user's
              specific needs.

       Integration/Extensibility
              CLIPS  can  be  embedded  within  procedural  code,  called  as  a  subroutine, and
              integrated with languages such as C, FORTRAN and ADA.  CLIPS can be easily extended
              by a user through the use of several well-defined protocols.

       Interactive Development
              The  standard  version  of CLIPS provides an interactive, text oriented development
              environment, including debugging aids, on-line  help,  and  an  integrated  editor.
              Interfaces  providing  features  such  as  pulldown  menus, integrated editors, and
              multiple windows have been developed for the Macintosh, Windows 95,  and  X  Window
              environments.

       Verification/Validation

              CLIPS  includes  a number of features to support the verification and validation of
              expert systems including support for modular design and partitioning of a knowledge
              base, static and dynamic constraint checking of slot values and function arguments,
              and semantic analysis of  rule  patterns  to  determine  if  inconsistencies  could
              prevent a rule from firing or generate an error.

       Fully Documented
              CLIPS  comes  with  extensive  documentation  including  a  a User's Guide, a Basic
              Programming Guide, an Advanced Programming Guide and an Architecture Manual. All of
              these documents are provided in the Debian clips-doc package.

BUGS

       CLIPS is old software so bugs are not unheard of.

HISTORY

The origins of the C Language Integrated Production System (CLIPS) date back to 1984 at
NASA's Johnson Space Center. At this time, the Artificial Intelligence Section (later the
Software Technology Branch, Client/Server Systems Branch, and now the Information
Technology Office) had developed over a dozen prototype expert systems applications using
state-of-the-art hardware and software. However, despite extensive demonstrations of the
potential of expert systems, few of these applications were put into regular use. This
failure to provide expert systems technology within NASA's operational computing
constraints could largely be traced to the use of LISP as the base language for nearly all
expert system software tools at that time. In particular, three problems hindered the use
of LISP based expert system tools within NASA: the low availability of LISP on a wide
variety of conventional computers, the high cost of state-of-the-art LISP tools and
hardware, and the poor integration of LISP with other languages (making embedded
applications difficult).

The Artificial Intelligence Section felt that the use of a conventional language, such as
C, would eliminate most of these problems, and initially looked to the expert system tool
vendors to provide an expert system tool written using a conventional language. Although a
number of tool vendors started converting their tools to run in C, the cost of each tool
was still very high, most were restricted to a small variety of computers, and the
projected availability times were discouraging. To meet all of its needs in a timely and
cost effective manner, it became evident that the Artificial Intelligence Section would
have to develop its own C based expert system tool.

The prototype version of CLIPS was developed in the spring of 1985 in a little over two
months. Particular attention was given to making the tool compatible with expert systems
under development at that time by the Artificial Intelligence Section. Thus, the syntax of
CLIPS was made to very closely resemble the syntax of a subset of the ART expert system
tool developed by Inference Corporation. Although originally modelled from ART, CLIPS was
developed entirely without assistance from Inference or access to the ART source code.

The original intent for CLIPS was to gain useful insight and knowledge about the
construction of expert system tools and to lay the groundwork for the construction of a
replacement tool for the commercial tools currently being used. Version 1.0 demonstrated
the feasibility of the project concept. After additional development, it became apparent
that CLIPS would be a low cost expert system tool ideal for the purposes of training.
Another year of development and internal use went into CLIPS improving its portability,
performance, functionality, and supporting documentation. Version 3.0 of CLIPS was made
available to groups outside of NASA in the summer of 1986.

Further enhancements transformed CLIPS from a training tool into a tool useful for the
development and delivery of expert systems as well. Versions 4.0 and 4.1 of CLIPS,
released respectively in the summer and fall of 1987, featured greatly improved
performance, external language integration, and delivery capabilities. Version 4.2 of
CLIPS, released in the summer of 1988, was a complete rewrite of

CLIPS for code modularity. Also included with this release were an architecture manual
providing a detailed description of the CLIPS software architecture and a utility program
for aiding in the verification and validation of rule-based programs. Version 4.3 of
CLIPS, released in the summer of 1989, added still more functionality.

Originally, the primary representation methodology in CLIPS was a forward chaining rule
language based on the Rete algorithm (hence the Production System part of the CLIPS
acronym). Version 5.0 of CLIPS, released in the spring of 1991, introduced two new
programming paradigms: procedural programming (as found in languages such as C and Ada;)
and object-oriented programming (as found in languages such as the Common Lisp Object
System and Smalltalk). The object-oriented programming language provided within CLIPS is
called the CLIPS Object-Oriented Language (COOL). Version 5.1 of CLIPS, released in the
fall of 1991, was primarily a software maintenance upgrade required to support the newly
developed and/or enhanced X Window, MS-DOS, and Macintosh interfaces. Version 6.0,
released in the Spring of 1993, added fully integrated object/rule pattern matching and
support features for rule-based software engineering. Version 6.1, released in the Summer
of 1998, added C++ compatibility and functions for profiling performance.

Because of its portability, extensibility, capabilities, and low-cost, CLIPS has received
widespread acceptance throughout the government, industry, and academia. The development
of CLIPS has helped to improve the ability to deliver expert system technology throughout
the public and private sectors for a wide range of applications and diverse computing
environments. CLIPS is being used by over 5,000 users throughout the public and private
community including: all NASA sites and branches of the military, numerous federal
bureaus, government contractors, universities, and many private companies.

CLIPS is now maintained as public domain software by the main program authors who no
longer work for NASA.

Derivative works for CLIPS have also appeared, such as:

JESS The Java Expert System Shell, which provides a CLIPS interpreter for the Java
programming language.

fuzzyCLIPS
A fuzzy extension of CLIPS.

bw CLIPS A version of CLIPS using backward chains.

AUTHOR

       As with any large project, CLIPS is the result of the  efforts  of  numerous  people.  The
       primary  contributors  have  been: Robert Savely, previous branch chief of the STB and now
       chief scientist of advanced software technology at JSC,  who  conceived  the  project  and
       provided  overall  direction  and support; Chris Culbert, current chief of the Information
       Technology Office, who managed the project, wrote the original CLIPS Reference Manual, and
       designed  the  original  version of CRSV; Gary Riley, who designed and developed the rule-
       based portion of

       CLIPS , coauthored the CLIPS Reference Manual and CLIPS Architecture Manual, and developed
       the  Macintosh  interface  for CLIPS ; Brian Donnell, who designed and developed the CLIPS
       Object  Oriented  Language  (COOL),  coauthored  the  CLIPS  Reference  Manual  and  CLIPS
       Architecture Manual, and developed the previous MS-DOS interfaces for CLIPS ; Bebe Ly, who
       was responsible for maintenance and enhancements  to  CRSV  and  is  now  responsible  for
       developing  the  X  Window interface for CLIPS; Chris Ortiz, who developed the Windows 3.1
       interface for CLIPS; Dr. Joseph Giarratano of the University of  Houston-Clear  Lake,  who
       wrote  the  CLIPS  User's Guide; and Frank Lopez, who designed and developed CLIPS version
       1.0 and wrote the CLIPS 1.0 User's Guide.

       Many other individuals contributed to the design, development, review, and general support
       of  CLIPS,  including:  Jack  Aldridge,  Carla  Armstrong, Paul Baffes, Ann Baker, Stephen
       Baudendistel, Les Berke, Tom  Blinn,  Marlon  Boarnet,  Dan  Bochsler,  Bob  Brown,  Barry
       Cameron,  Tim Cleghorn, Major Paul Condit, Major Steve Cross, Andy Cunningham, Dan Danley,
       Mark Engelberg, Kirt Fields, Ken Freeman, Kevin Greiner, Ervin Grice, Sharon Hecht,  Patti
       Herrick,  Mark  Hoffman,  Grace  Hua,  Gordon  Johnson,  Phillip Johnston, Sam Juliano, Ed
       Lineberry, Bowen Loftin, Linda Martin, Daniel McCoy, Terry McGregor, Becky McGuire,  Scott
       Meadows, C. J. Melebeck, Paul Mitchell, Steve Mueller, Bill Paseman, Cynthia Rathjen, Eric
       Raymond, Reza Razavipour, Marsha Renals,  Monica  Rua,  Tim  Saito,  Gregg  Swietek,  Eric
       Taylor, James Villarreal, Lui Wang, Bob Way, Jim Wescott, Charlie Wheeler, and Wes White.

COPYRIGHT

       This  manpage  was made by Javier Fernández-Sanguino <jfs@debian.org> for Debian GNU/Linux
       (but may be used by others)