Representing rules in general as XML is a *hard* problem, which is why several different efforts have been working on it for a few years, and still have work to do. Representing a specific subset of the infinite range of possible rules is a little easier, but still hard.
Creating a single, easy, comprehensible GUI that nontechnical end-users could use to edit arbitrary rules is, using current technology, anyway, impossible (this doesn't stop many rule engine vendors from claiming to offer such a GUI, however.) Defining rules is *programming*, and still takes some technical knowledge. The "Programmer's Apprentice" envisioned some years ago has still not arrived. Again, creating a GUI to let end-users choose from a finite number of options to create some subset of all possible rules is easier, but still a tough problem. In either case, the important thing is to do some serious system analysis up front, and try to restrict the domain of the rules that will be represented as much as possible. Your editor doesn't have to be able to edit all the rules in the system: only the user-supplied ones. You can simplify matters by supplying some judiciously chosen functions that the user-edited rules can invoke; ideally, each rule RHS might correspond to only one function call. I think Richard Patten wrote: > > Hello everybody, > I am creating an application that uses JESS as the Expert System, Initially I >thought of creating an XML file so that the user can feed rules into the knowledge >base through this file. The thing is as the rules becomes complicated so does the >schema of the XML file, so therefore I thought of letting the user insert the rules >straight into the Knowledge base without the XML file since the XML file is also >complicated, what do you'll think about this. How do you'll get the user to insert >rules into the system is it through a custom userinterface that you'll made or is it >staright into JESS without an userInterface. > > thanks > Richard. > > > > --------------------------------- > Do you Yahoo!? > Y! Web Hosting - Let the expert host your web site --------------------------------------------------------- Ernest Friedman-Hill Distributed Systems Research Phone: (925) 294-2154 Sandia National Labs FAX: (925) 294-2234 Org. 8920, MS 9012 [EMAIL PROTECTED] PO Box 969 http://herzberg.ca.sandia.gov Livermore, CA 94550 -------------------------------------------------------------------- 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] --------------------------------------------------------------------
