EXSYS Professional Developer Interface

This dialog would allow selection of the following custom
groups:
Group Values
1 Red
2 Yellow, Orange
3 Blue, Green
4 White
This would build the node:
The color of the flower is red
The color of the flower is
yellow OR orange
The color of the flower is yellow
OR blue OR green
The color of the flower is white
Double Click to Add Factor
Double Click to Add Factor
Double Click to Add Factor
Double Click to Add Factor
In this case four branches were created. The Custom
option gives total control on the number of branches and
values associated with them.
The ability to add nodes rapidly with a point and click
interface, plus RuleBook's feature of expanding the tree to
consider all possible combinations of input, allows rules to
be built very rapidly. The developer is prompted to
consider all possible cases, which can be an excellent way
to extract knowledge from the developer and guarantees
system completeness.
In most applications there would be multiple trees each
representing a different aspect of the decision making
problem. Trees can assign values in their THEN part. If
other tree nodes require these values, the appropriate rules
will automatically be called through backward chaining.
The trees can be printed and discussed with other
experts. Since the trees are easy to read, this
facilitates group consensus on the application, even
by experts not using RuleBook.
THE RULEBOOK EXPERT
RuleBook has a built in Expert to automatically
validate the system and check for a variety of errors
that may have been made in the trees. The expert is
run by clicking on the Expert tab to display the
Expert window.
To have the Expert check the system, click on the
Check System button. If there is a red border around
the button, the trees have been changed since the last
10 • THE EXSYS DEVELOPER OVERVIEW
check and it is time to recheck the system. If there is
no red border the trees have not been changed since the
last check.
The Expert does two different checks of the system. The
first looks for errors that can be found rapidly. The second
part actually runs the rules with all of the possible
combinations of input data. Sets of input are
systematically generated, and used to test the rules. During
the test, the Expert looks for various types of errors.
Systems developed with RuleBook can be automatically
checked by the Validation Expert before fielding the
application. The validation testing runs automatically and
for larger systems can be done over a weekend or
vacation.
When the Expert checks the system, it will report on a
variety of errors:
Incomplete Branches
Text Factors Not Used
Variables Not Used
Choices Not Used
Text Factors Not Always Derived
Variables Not Always Derived
Multiple Factors Use
Input Produces No Output
Variable Assigned a Value out of Range
Too Many Values for Text Factor
Loop Error
RULEBOOK - THE BOTTOM LINE
The combination of the easy tree diagram developer
interface plus the ability of RuleBook to check an
application for many common errors makes it the ideal
tool for rapid system development. RuleBook is an
excellent choice for diagnostic problems, help desks
and other areas where the logic can be described as a
tree diagram.
Expert
Problems:
Help!
Check System
Details Report