. VITAL is a research and development project which aims to provide methodological and software support for developing large, embedded KBS applications. VITAL is novel in that its ambition is to develop a methodology-based workbench covering the whole KBS lifecycle, from requirements specification to implementation, and to integrate and deploy a number of techniques drawn from artificial intelligence, as well as software engineering and human-computer interaction fields of research. In this paper we report on the current state of the VITAL workbench, and in particular we discuss the general design choices we took concerning the overall infrastructure, user interface, data and control integration, and tool management. Moreover, we'll describe in some detail the important role that some advanced software technologies - such as groupware and software visualization - have played in the design and implementation of the workbench. 1. Introduction There is widespread consensus in the Knowled...

: In this document the knowledge representation component of the VITAL workbench is specified. Authors: Enrico Motta, Arthur Stutt, Kieron O'Hara, Juha Kuusela, Hannu Toivonen, Han Reichgelt, Stuart Watt, Stuart Aitken, François Verbeck. IMPORTANT NOTE: Working Paper The status of this document is a Working Paper. That means that it has been reviewed and accepted by the task participants. It has not been checked by the internal QA procedure in VITAL and is not meant to be the final version of the deliverable. Therefore, the deliverable is meant for internal use only and should not be distributed outside the project. Working Paper status granted by the Task manager - Enrico Motta - January 30th, 1991 Collaborators (VITAL Partners): SYSECA - SYSECA TEMPS REEL (Coordinator) * NOTT - UNIVERSITY OF NOTTINGHAM * BULL - BULL CEDIAG AC - ANDERSEN CONSULTING ONERA - ONERA PTT - ROYAL PTT NEDERLAND NV * OU - THE OPEN UNIVERSITY * NOKIA - NOKIA RESEARCH CENTER * marked partners are invol...

The validation of a Knowledge Based System (KBS) involves comparisons between an external reference model and a system's component parts. In this paper I describe how such comparisons can be aided by the application of software visualization technology. Software visualization is the use of filmcraft, cartoon animation and graphic design techniques to display data structures, programs, and algorithms. The described approach eases the task of mapping between the comparates by the use of dynamic code, design, and domain oriented visualizations of KBS execution. 1. INTRODUCTION Software Visualization (SV) [Price et al., 1993] is the use of filmcraft, cartoon animation and graphic design techniques to display data structures, programs, and algorithms. Software visualization is basically the unification of algorithm animation and program visualization, two concurrent developments from the 1980s. Algorithm animations are high level characterisations of how data is manipulated during a progra...

: In this paper the architecture of the VITAL-KR is described. Author: Enrico Motta and Arthur Stutt Collaborators (VITAL Partners): SYSECA - SYSECA TEMPS REEL (Coordinator) * NOTT - UNIVERSITY OF NOTTINGHAM * BULL - BULL CEDIAG AC - ANDERSEN CONSULTING ONERA - ONERA PTT - ROYAL PTT NEDERLAND NV * OU - THE OPEN UNIVERSITY * NOKIA - NOKIA RESEARCH CENTER * marked partners are involved in this task page 1 _____________________________________________________________________ The Open University 1991 1. INTRODUCTION As discussed in (Motta, 1991) both the current practice of industrial KBS, and the consensus among researchers (Frisch & Cohn, 1991) suggest that hybrid architectures, embedding a number of specialized representations/reasoners, are required to enable knowledge engineers to build efficient and powerful KBs. This is due to the fact that it has been recognized that no universal knowledge representation language exists, which can efficiently model all types of proble...