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AIList Digest Volume 1 Issue 033
AIList Digest Saturday, 6 Aug 1983 Volume 1 : Issue 33
Today's Topics:
Automatic Translation - FRANZLATOR & Natural Language,
Expert Systems - Survey Alert,
Fifth Generation - Opinions,
Computational Complexity - Parallelism,
Distributed AI - Problem Solving Bibliography,
Literature Sources - Requests,
Workstations - Request,
Job - Stanford Heuristic Programming Project
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Date: Thu, 4 Aug 83 12:06 EDT
From: Tim Finin <Tim%UPenn@UDel-Relay>
Subject: FRANZLATOR inter-dialect translation system
We have built a rule-driven lisp-to-lisp translation system
(FRANZLATOR) in Franz lisp and have used it to translate KL-ONE from
Interlisp to Franz. (We includes people here at Penn and at BBN and
CCA). The system is modular so that modifying it to work with a
different source and target dialect should involve only changing
several data bases.
The translator is organized as a two-pass system which is applied to a
set of source-dialect files and produces a corresponding set of
target-dialect files and a set of files containing notes about the
translation (e.g. possible errors).
During the first pass all of the source files are scanned to build up
a database of information about the functions defined in the file
(e.g. type of function, arity, how it evals its args). In the second
pass the expressions in the source files are translated and the
results written to the target files. The translation of an
s-expression is driven by transformation rules applied according to an
"eval-order" schedule (i.e. the arguments to a function call are
translated before the call to the function itself). An additional
initial pass may be required to perform certain character-level
transformations, although this can often be done through the use of
multiple readtables.
The actual translation is done by a set of rewrite rules, each rule
taking an s-expression into one or more resultant s-expressions. In
addition to the usual "pattern" and "result" parts, rules can be
easily augmented with arbitrary conditions and actions and can have
several other attributes which control their application (e.g. a
priority). Variables are represented using the "backquote" convention.
Example of rules for Interlisp->Franz are:
(NIL nil)
((NLISTP ,x) (not (dtpr ,x)))
((PROG1 ,@args) (prog2 nil ,@args))
((DECLARE: ,@args) ,(translateDeclare: ,args))
((and ,@x (and ,@y) ,@z) (and ,@x ,@y ,@z) -cyclic)
The translation rules are presented to the system in the form
described above and are immediately "compiled" (by macro-expansion)
into Lisp code which is quite efficient and can be, of course, further
compiled by LISZT. The pattern matching operation, for example, is
"open coded" into a conjuction of primitive tests and action (e.g. EQ,
EQUAL, LENGTH, SETQ).
If you are interested in more information, contact me.
- Tim at UPENN (csnet)
------------------------------
Date: Friday, 5 August 1983 12:43:04 EDT
From: Robert.Frederking@CMU-CS-CAD
Subject: Machine translation
The thing that makes any kind of general purpose machine
translation extremely hard is that there generally aren't one-to-one
correspondences between words, phrases, or sometimes concepts in two
different human languages. A real translator essentially reads and
understands the text in one language, and then generates the
appropriate text in the other language. Since understanding general
texts requires huge amounts of real-world knowledge, unrestricted
machine translation will arrive about the time AI programs can pass
the Turing test. In my opinion, this will be substantially longer
than ten years.
------------------------------
Date: Thu 4 Aug 83 09:25:16-PDT
From: Ken Laws <Laws@SRI-AI.ARPA>
Subject: Expert Systems Summary
The August issue of IEEE Spectrum contains an article by William B.
Gevarter (of NASA) titled "Expert Systems: Limited but Powerful". The
table of existing expert systems shows 79 systems in 16 categories.
The text includes brief descriptions of Dendral, Mycin, R1, and
Internist.
-- Ken Laws
------------------------------
Date: 4 Aug 83 8:56:21-PDT (Thu)
From: decvax!linus!philabs!ras @ Ucb-Vax
Subject: Re: Japanese Effort
Article-I.D.: philabs.27320
Bully for you Fred! I also believe the Japanese do not have
the know how nor the man-power to create such a machine.
They make great memory devices but thats where it ends.
Rafael Aquino !plabs
------------------------------
Date: Thu 4 Aug 83 13:41:13-PDT
From: Al Davis <ADavis at SRI-KL>
Subject: Re: Fifth Generation Book Review
As a frequent visitor to the Soviet Union, and regular reader of
Kibernetica, I don't get the feeling that the "Russians are out in
left field" - nor do I feel that the book is particularly
illuminating. It is readable and provides some excellent insight to
the non-professional. However the hype and reality is carefully
interwoven. After all how professional is the "pointing of a
trembling finger at the Japanese". Take your pick.
Al Davis
AI Architecture
Fairchild AI Labs
------------------------------
Date: 4 Aug 1983 23:05:15-PDT
From: borgward.umn-cs@Rand-Relay
Subject: Re: Fifth Generation Computing
I do know of other nations with a data flow machine in operation.
Gurd and Watson have one that works at Manchester in England. I think
that the French LAU system also works. Such lapses in attention are
what make Americans unpopular in Europe. We also import a lot of AI
research from Europe and Prolog as well.
--Peter Borgwardt, University of Minnesota
------------------------------
Date: Fri 5 Aug 83 14:06:06-PDT
From: David Rogers <DRogers@SUMEX-AIM.ARPA>
Subject: NP-completeness and parallelism
In AIList V#32 Fred comments that "NP-completeness cannot be
gotten around in general by building bigger or faster computers". My
guess would be that parallelism may offer a way to reduce the order of
an algorithm, perhaps even to a polynomial order (using a machine with
"infinite parallel capacity", closely related to Turing's machine with
"infinite memory"). For example, I have heard of work developing
sorting algorithms for parallel machines which have a lower order than
any known sequential algorithm.
Perhaps more powerful machines are truly the answer to some of
our problems, especially in vision analysis and data base searching.
Has anyone heard of a good book discussing parallel algorithms and
reduction in problem order?
David Rogers
DRogers@SUMEX-AIM.ARPA
------------------------------
Date: Thu 4 Aug 83 17:41:01-PDT
From: Vineet Singh <vsingh@SUMEX-AIM.ARPA>
Subject: Distributed Problem Solving: An Annotated Bibliography
For all of you who expressed interest in the annotated bibliography
on Distributed Problem Solving, here is some important information on
how to ftp a copy if you don't know this already.
The bibliography manuscript file "<vsingh.dps>dpsdis.bib" will be kept
on sumex-aim.arpa. Please login as "anonymous" with password
"sumexguest" (one word).
The file is by no means complete as you can see. It will be
continually updated. You may notice that the file is prepared for
Scribe formatting.
Please mail additional entries/annotations/corrections/suggestions to
me and I will incorporate them in the file as soon as possible. The
turnaround time will be a lot shorter if the new entries are also in
Scribe format. If you know anything about Scribe, please save me a
lot of effort and put your entries in Scribe format.
For those of you that did not see the original message, I have
reproduced it below.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is to request contributions to an annotated bibliography of
papers in *Distributed Problem-Solving* that I am currently compiling.
My plan is to make the bibliography available to anybody that is
interested in it at any stage in its compilation. Papers will be from
many diverse areas: Artificial Intelligence, Computer Systems
(especially Distributed Systems and Multiprocessors), Analysis of
Algorithms, Economics, Organizational Theory, etc.
Some miscellaneous comments. My definition of distributed
problem-solving is a very general one, namely "the process of many
entities engaged in solving a problem", so feel free to send a
contribution if you are not sure that a paper is suitable for this
bibliography. I also encourage you to make short annotations; more
than 5 sentences is long. All annotations in the bibliography will
carry a reference to the author. If your bibliography entries are in
Scribe format that's great because the entire bibliography will be in
Scribe.
Vineet Singh (VSINGH@SUMEX-AIM.ARPA)
------------------------------
Date: 1 Aug 83 4:22:03-PDT (Mon)
From: ihnp4!cbosgd!cbscd5!lvc @ Ucb-Vax
Subject: AI Journals
Article-I.D.: cbscd5.365
I am interested in subscribing to a computer science journal(s) that
deals primarily with artificial intelligence. Could anyone that knows
of such journals send me via mail the names of these journals. I will
post a list of all those sent my way. Thanks in advance,
Larry Cipriani cbosgd!cbscd5!lvc
------------------------------
Date: 4 Aug 83 0:26:53-PDT (Thu)
From: hplabs!hp-pcd!jrf @ Ucb-Vax
Subject: AI~Geography
Article-I.D.: hp-pcd.1455
Please send info on what's available in Geography (PROSPECTOR,
cartography, etc.). Thanks.
jrf
------------------------------
Date: 05 Aug 83 1417 PDT
From: Fred Lakin <FRD@SU-AI>
Subject: LISP & SUNs ...
I am interested in connectons between Franz LISP and SUN workstations.
Like how far along is Franz on the SUN? Is there some package which
allows Franz on a VAX to use a SUN as a display device? Also, now
that i think of it, any other LISP's which might run on both SUNs and
VAXes ...
Any info on this matter would be appreciated. Thnaks, Fred Lakin
------------------------------
Date: Thu 4 Aug 83 09:57:01-PDT
From: Larry Fagan <FAGAN@SUMEX-AIM.ARPA>
Subject: Programmer - ONCOCIN Project: Stanford Heuristic Programming
Project
Programmer - ONCOCIN Project: Stanford Heuristic Programming Project
This position will involve applications programming for an
oncology protocol management system known as ONCOCIN. This project
with Ted Shortliffe as principal investigator, represents an
application of expert systems to the treatment of cancer patients, and
is currently in daily use by physicians. The job requires significant
experience with artificial intelligence techniques and the LISP or
Interlisp languages. The applicant must be willing to learn an
already existing, large expert system. Masters level training in
computer science and previous experience with personal workstations
are highly desirable. Although the tasks required will be varied, the
emphasis will be on artificial intelligence aspects of the oncology
research work:
*day-to-day management of the Interlisp programming efforts;
*participation in the design as well as the implementation of system
capabilities; *documentation of the system on an ongoing basis
(system overview/description as well as software documentation);
*supervisory coordination of students and part-time programmers who
may also be working on related projects; *assistance with occasional
non-programming matters important to the smooth running of the
project and to the efficient and effective performance of the system
in the clinical environment; *assistance with system demonstrations
for visitors and at meetings; *assistance with preparation of
portions of annual reports and funding proposals; *an ability to work
closely with the Chief Programmer, who will coordinate the Interlisp
efforts with other developing aspects of the total project.
Salary: will follow Stanford University guidelines for Scientific
Programmer III in accordance with the level of training and prior
experience.
Contact: Larry Fagan, M.D., Ph.D. (FAGAN@SUMEX)
Project Director, ONCOCIN
Stanford University Medical Center
TC-117, Dept. of General Internal Medicine
Stanford, Calif. 94305 (415)497-6979
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End of AIList Digest
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