I think a subtle point is that the whole point of a system such as Jess is _precisely_
to remove the need to approach a problem procedurally. Another language with this in
mind is Prolog. Neither Clips nor Prolog totally succeed but the idea is that for
certain problems you gain robustness, performance (quite often) and maintainability
precisely because the procedural aspects are off-loaded (to the Resolution algorithm
for Prolog and Rete for Clips/Jess). Prolog
can get nasty because of certain procedural things which insist on creeping in -- I've
found Clips/Jess to be less fragile in this regard (your mileage may differ)..
Learning how to think non-procedurally is often the hardest part of learning these
kinds of languages -- I wish I had a procedure to teach how to do it <g>.
Tnx
Alanl
Thomas Barnekow wrote:
> Hi!
>
> Lewis Hart wrote:
> > I have to disagree, the triggering of rules in JESS is completely
> > deterministic. Given the same initial conditions and the same input facts
> > asserted in the same order, -- the same rules in the same order will always
> > be fired. This even includes random number generators if you can control
> > their initial "seed" values. Knowledge/rule-based systems are not
> > procedural, and often the order of rule firing is not obvious beforehand,
> > but this is different issue.
>
> Chris Glur wrote:
> > * AI systems are often non-deterministic, like sorting potatos sizes
> > through 3 sieves - you can't be sure which hole a particular potato
> > will pass, to get the correct selection.
>
> You have to differentiate between determinism "by contract" (I assume Chris means
>this one) and "by implementation" (that's probably what Lewis is talking about.) That
>is, a system can be non-deterministic by contract (or conceptually) while its actual
>behaviour, as implemented, can be "somehow deterministic." Be careful, though, to
>rely upon this "accidental" determinism, because the behavior might change if any
>modifications to the implementation are made.
>
> Thomas
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