Hi Ivo, I tend agree with Peter and Wolfgang that a Delphi-like or Visual Basic-like, drag-and-drop visual builder tool for general rule programming is not really needed -- besides, it's never going to be as comprehensive as simply writing raw code.
However, what about tools that would assist rules programmers in designing applications at a higher level of abstraction than the expression level and the construct level (though certainly providing for them)? Specifically, consider a UML-like design/visualization tool that was Jess module-centric as opposed to Java class or package-centric. It would allow a developer to model the reasoning components of a rule-based application at a granularity above the code-level, while providing editing capability to "drill-down" into a particular module to implement and debug it. Furthermore, just as UML sequence diagrams document the message passing between objects in some context, such a tool could provide a similar diagram that documents the logical interaction between modules (i.e. how rules firing in module A affect the working memory of module B and so forth). It would help a developer to plan and test the high-level logic and reasoning first it before diving into the implementation. Take a look at the many tools in the MyEclipseIDE product, and you will see most have dual design/edit modes where developers can toggle between a high-level visualization of their application or component and the actual implementation code -- the one for visually building Struts apps comes to mind http://www.myeclipseide.com/htmlpages-func-display-pid-13.html <http://www.myeclipseide.com/htmlpages-func-display-pid-13.html%20>(scroll 1/3 down page). Ever seen Protege? http://protege.stanford.edu/ <http://protege.stanford.edu/%20> There might be some synergy with that, too. -Jason ----------------------------------------------------------- Jason Morris Morris Technical Solutions LLC [EMAIL PROTECTED] (517) 304-5883
