$usepop/pop/packages/newkit/prb/AREADME.txt http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/research/projects/poplog/newkit/prb/AREADME.txt This replaces the README file. If you find one in the same directory as this file, please ignore it, and read only this file (AREAME.txt). Since Poplog was reorganised for version 15.6, around 2005, this package, which used to be installed separately in a $local directory has become part of the standard Poplog distribution, and is included in $usepop/pop/packages/newkit/ in the prb/ directory. =================================================================== EXTRACT FROM HELP POPRULEBASE Poprulebase is a very flexible package supporting the construction of single-threaded or multi-threaded mechanisms driven by condition-action rules, which may invoke or interact with other sorts of mechanisms. It is the core of the SimAgent toolkit. Poprulebase extends the programming language Pop-11 to provide a powerful and flexible forward chaining system for specifying and running sets of condition-action rules, including conditions and actions with interfaces to conventional procedural programs, and also to "sub-symbolic" mechanisms such as neural nets. Poprulebase forms the "core" of the SimAgent toolkit but can be used independently of the remainder of the toolkit. The toolkit provides further mechanisms for defining classes of interacting objects and agents, some of which have complex internal mechanisms implemented using poprulebase. Within the toolkit there is support for (simulated) parallel execution of different rulesets (multi-threading), both within a single agent, and also in different coexisting agents. Poprulebase can be combined with the RCLIB package for creating 2-D graphical interfaces supporting menus, sliders, dials, text input, moving objects and various kinds of graphical interaction with running programs. This is done in some of the graphical extensions to SimAgent. However Poprulebase can also be used on its own with a purely textual interface, or in connection with other kinds of graphical interfaces provided that the host language Pop-11 supports them or can connect to them. The windows version of poplog does not yet support graphics. But poprulebase will work in it. An introduction to the SimAgent toolkit can be found in a file included with the toolit, TEACH * SIM_AGENT, also accessible at this Web site: http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/research/poplog/sim/teach along with additional "TEACH" files. For more information see http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/research/projects/poplog/packages/simagent.html =================================================================== This package is freely available and may be used for any purpose, though there are no warranties as to fitness for purpose. If you use it, I would be very grateful if you could send comments and suggestions, or at least a note that you have it, to A.Sloman@cs.bham.ac.uk If the package is used for research or development, please acknowledge use of the Birmingham University Poprulebase toolkit. It is part of the SimAgent toolkit, which used to be called SIM_AGENT. ======================================================================= If these programs are revised/extended the changes will be announced in http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/research/projects/poplog/sim/help/sim_agent_news http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/research/projects/poplog/prb/help/prb_news =================================================================== The Poprulebase package normally resides in this Poplog directory: $usepop/pop/packages/prb which is actually a link to $usepop/pop/packages/newkit/prb The Pop-11 file prblib.p in that directory, is invoked by the Pop-11 command uses prblib It is used to extend the library search lists so that the relevant prb sub-directories are added to popautolist, popuseslist, vedhelplist, vedteachlist, etc. =================================================================== Further information about the SimAgent library installed in $usepop/pop/packages/sim/ linked to $usepop/pop/packages/newkit/sim/ is in the file $usepop/pop/packages/newkit/sim/AREADME.txt =================================================================== CONTENTS -- PRECONDITIONS -- CONTENTS OF THIS PACKAGE -- PRECONDITIONS To use the Poprulebase tools you need to be fairly fluent in Pop-11. This is not a toy system for absolute beginners, though it could be used to build one. For more on Pop-11 see http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/research/projects/poplog/primer/ The Pop-11 Primer, avaiable in html or PDF http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/research/projects/poplog/freepoplog.html http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/research/projects/poplog/poplog.info.html http://www.poplog.cs.reading.ac.uk/poplog http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poplog http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pop-11 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/POP-2 And the teaching materials mentioned here: http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/research/projects/poplog/freepoplog.html#teaching Poprulebase makes use of 1. The Pop-11 pattern matcher TEACH MATCHES HELP MATCHES HELP READPATTERN 2. Properties (each database is stored in a property (hash table), as a collection of lists. See HELP PROPERTIES HELP NEWPROPERTY Note: The SimAGent package also uses the poprulebase library. This is normally resident in $usepop/pop/packages/sim/ which is actually a link to $usepop/pop/packages/newkit/sim/ which contains source code, example programs, and teaching, and help files. -- CONTENTS OF THIS PACKAGE prb/AREADME.txt This file prb/include/ Directory containing *.ph files for use in macros and syntax words. prb/auto/ Autoloadable extensions to Poprulebase. Accessible only after compiling prblib.p prb/lib/ Non-autoloadable library files (need the "lib" or "uses" command.) prb/prblib.p Makes the libraries accessible to pop-11 users. If this directory is installed somewhere other than $usepop/pop/packages/prb/prblib.p or $usepop/pop/packages/newkit/prb/prblib.p then something went wrong with the installation, but it can still be compiled using its full path name. priblib.p is a Pop-11 program to set up extensions to the Poplog search lists for autoloadable, library, and documentation files. Loading this does not load the full package: it merely makes the directories browsable. It may compile an additional startup file. prb/test/ Contains some test programs used for development and testing of the system. Delete if unwanted. prb/teach/ Tutorial introductions and examples prb/help/ Directory containing help files especially prb/help/prb_news prb/ref/ Directory for REF files, when available. (Not yet written) prb/junk If this exists, that's a mistake in the distribution. Please delete it. OTHER FILES prb/AREADME.txt This file prb/mkprb Shell script to build a saved image with the Poprulebase library precompiled. It creates a saved image $poplocalbin/prb.psv containing objectclass and poprulebase, along with some VED tailoring files. (Some may not be needed) Remove the objectclass and/or ved instructions if desired. prb/mktarfile Shell script for making tar file in the directory above this one. Check that you don't already have a file called ../prbtar that you want preserved. Can be used to make a tar file of this directory =================================================================== This package is freely available to anyone who has a version of Poplog which supports the current sim_agent facilities (i.e. Poplog version 15.0 or later). If you obtain it, and especially if you use it, I would be very grateful if you could send comments and suggestions, or at least a note that you have it, to A.Sloman@cs.bham.ac.uk If the package is used for research or development, please acknowledge use of the Birmingham University SIM_AGENT toolkit. ======================================================================= The rest of the old file has been merged into the new instructions, above. Aaron Sloman 4 Jul 2009