JESS: run-query results ...

[Tom Reinhardt]

Folks:   At present, I'm considering Jess as the implementation language for a process-rule checker --specifically for MEMS design. Anyway, it seems, from the documentation, that I may approach GUI design from two directions: Either implement the GUI in Java and utilize the Rete inferencing engine as a "library" or implement the GUI in Jess. I have been a LISP programmer for over twenty years, but am also Java literate ... I don't have any preference, per se ... all right, I'd prefer LISP syntax, but it's not a show-stopper.   Okay. So, I create a simple JFrame with some menus and some graphics. Now, I have defined a defquery whose sole purpose is to cons-up a list of Materials (this is a pattern that I expect will be repeated throughout the application).   Say something like:   (defquery findAllMaterials  " ...."   (Equipment ...))   "Batching" the "clp" file that contains this form plus a bunch of Materials seems to work just fine. In Jess, I can run:   (bind ?materials (run-query findAllMaterials))   and I get back a structure that I can treat as an Enumeration:   (while (?materials hasMoreElements) ...)   Now, I'd like to retrieve that Enumeration and use it within my Java code, perhaps to populate a drop-down list of Materials:   Value value=m_rete.executeCommand("(run-query findAllMaterials)");   What I get back looks like a java.util.Vector$<some-address> .... after calling the appropriate externalAddressValue function --to which I also provide the current Rete engine's context, although I surmise that this value is ignored. Unfortunately, I cannot really use this thing as a Java Vector. I cannot even typecast it to a Vector, for that matter.   Clearly, I've misunderstood something here. So, if anyone has any idea of what I'm talking about, I'd appreciate a hint.   Thanks,   TomR