Just to add fuel to the fire. :-) Jess (et. al.) are (as has been stated here earlier) a declarative language, not a procedural language. Back in 1999 I had a friend who was trying to write a program for a lawyer to do jury selection. His problem with using Java was that he was trying to do an iterative loop around either if-then-else or case statements so that he could re-evaluate some clauses (Conditional Elements) that might change after the initial evaluation (firing) of the clause. When I explained that a rulebase was, by nature, non-monotonic (unlike Java) he was thrilled and immediately began using that because it suited his purposes much better. That's one.
Secondly, most business analysts give a problem to the witches and warlocks in the IT department and hope that whatever magic spell that they can cast or cauldron of brew will cure their ills. Because the BA's normally cannot read code, their only recourse to see if the IT department was successful is to try and write enough test cases to see if it will do what they wanted. Some rulebased systems are fairly self-explanatory in nature - to the extent that a non-technical BA can actually read the code; and change the code, if necessary, without having to get help from IT. (No, I do NOT recommend that BA's write a rulebase; not more than I would recommend that a BA write a database which is a much easier job.) So, there you have two good reasons. I need more coffee and I have to mow the yard this afternoon and I really should let the rest of the Jess users say something... :-) SDG jco James C. Owen Senior Knowledgebase Consultant 6314 Kelly Circle Garland, TX 75044 972.530.2895 214.684.5272 (cell) -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Saturday, June 07, 2003 12:38 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: JESS: when functional language is better that structured language ? Hi, I have a basic question could u please tell me that what kind of problems can be easily solved using functional languages like Lisp or Jess rather than using a structured language like C or Java. Thanks and Regards, Kaushik Dutta * * * The information contained in this message is legally privileged and confidential information intended only for the use of the addressed individual or entity indicated in this message (or responsible for delivery of the message to such person). It must not be read, copied, disclosed, distributed or used by any person other than the addressee. Unauthorised use, disclosure or copying is strictly prohibited and may be unlawful. Opinions, conclusions and other information on this message that do not relate to the official business of any of the constituent companies of the TATA CONSULTANCY SERVICES shall be understood as neither given nor endorsed by the Group. If you have received this message in error, you should destroy this message and kindly notify the sender by e-mail. Thank you. * * * -------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, send the words 'unsubscribe jess-users [EMAIL PROTECTED]' in the BODY of a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED], NOT to the list (use your own address!) List problems? Notify [EMAIL PROTECTED] --------------------------------------------------------------------
