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AIList Digest Volume 2 Issue 009
AIList Digest Monday, 23 Jan 1984 Volume 2 : Issue 9
Today's Topics:
AI Culture - Survey Results Available,
Digests - Vision-List Request,
Expert Systems - Software Debugging,
Seminars - Logic Programming & Bagel Architecture,
Conferences - Principles of Distributed Computing
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Date: 18 Jan 84 14:50:21 EST
From: Smadar <KEDAR-CABELLI@RUTGERS.ARPA>
Subject: How AI People Think - Cultural Premises of the AI Community...
[Reprinted from the Rutgers bboard.]
How AI People Think - Cultural Premises of the AI Community...
is the name of a report by sociologists at the University of Genoa, Italy,
based on a survey of AI researchers attending the International AI conference
(IJCAI-8) this past summer. [...]
Smadar.
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 18 Jan 84 13:08:34 PST
From: Philip Kahn <kahn@UCLA-CS>
Subject: TO THOSE INTERESTED IN COMPUTER VISION, IMAGE PROCESSING, ETC
This is the second notice directed to all of those interested
in IMAGE PROCESSING, COMPUTER VISION, etc. There has been a great need,
and interest, in compiling a VISION list that caters to the specialized
needs and interests of those involved in image/vision processing/theory/
implementation. I broadcast a message to this effect over this BBOARD
about three weeks ago asking for all those that are interested to
respond. Again, I reiterate the substance of that message:
1) If you are interested in participating in a VISION list,
and have not already expressed your interest to me,
please do so! NOW is the time to express that interest,
since NOW is when the need for such a list is being
evaluated.
2) I cannot moderate the list (due to a lack of the proper type
of resources to deal with the increased mail traffic). A
moderator is DESPERATELY NEEDED! I will assist you in
establishing the list, and I am presently in contact with
the moderator of AILIST (Ken LAWS@SRI-AI) to establish what
needs to be done. The job of moderator involves the
following:
i) All mail for the list is sent to you
ii) You screen (perhaps, format or edit, depending upon
the time and effort you wish to expend) all
incoming messages, then redistribute them to the
participants on the list at regular intervals.
iii) You maintain/update the distribution list.
Needless to say, the job of moderator is extremely rewarding
and involves a great deal of high visibility. In addition,
you get to GREATLY AID in the dissemination and sharing of
ideas and information in this growing field. Enough said...
3) If you know of ANYONE that might be interested in such a
list, PLEASE LET THEM KNOW and have them express that interest
to me by sending mail to KAHN@UCLA-CS.ARPA
Now's the time to let me know!
Philip Kahn
send mail to: KAHN@UCLA-CS.ARPA
------------------------------
Date: 19 Jan 84 15:14:04 EST
From: Lou <STEINBERG@RUTGERS.ARPA>
Subject: Re: Expert systems for software debugging
I don't know of any serious work in AI on software debugging since
HACKER. HACKER was a part of the planning work done at MIT some years
ago - it was an approach to planning/automatic programming where
planning was done with a simple planner that, e.g., ignored
interactions between plan steps. Then HACKER ran the plan/program and
had a bunch of mini-experts that detected various kinds of bugs. See
Sussman, A Computer Model of Skill Acquisition, MIT Press, 1975.
Also, there is some related work in hardware debugging. Are you aware
of the work by Randy Davis at MIT and by Mike Genesereth at Stanford on
hardware trouble shooting? This is the problem where you have a piece
of hardware (e.g. a VAX) that used to work but is now broken, and you
want to isolate the component (board, chip, etc.) that needs to be
replaced. Of course this is a bit different from program debugging,
since you are looking for a broken component rather than a mis-design.
E.g. for trouble shooting you can usually assume a single thing is
broken, but you often have multiple bugs in a program.
Here at Rutgers, we're working on an aid for design debugging for
VLSI. Design debugging is much more like software debugging. Our
basic approach is to use a signal constraint propagation method to
generate a set of possible places where the bug might be, and then use
various sorts of heuristics to prune the set (e.g. a sub-circuit
that's been used often before is less likely to have a bug than a
brand new one).
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 20 Jan 84 8:39:38 EST
From: Paul Broome <broome@brl-bmd>
Subject: Re: Expert systems for software debugging?
Debugging is a black art, not at all algorithmic, but almost totally
heuristic. There is a lot of expert knowledge around about how
to debug faulty programs, but it is rarely written down or
systemetized. Usually it seems to reside solely in the minds of
a few "debugging whizzes".
Does anyone know of an expert system that assists in software
debugging? Or any attempts (now or in the past) to produce such
an expert?
There are some good ideas and a Prolog implementation in Ehud Shapiro's
Algorithmic Program Debugging, which is published as an ACM distinguished
dissertation by MIT Press, 1983. One of his ideas is "divide-and-query:
a query-optimal diagnosis algorithm," which is essentially a simple binary
bug search. If the program is incorrect on some input then the program
is divided into two roughly equal subtrees and the computation backtracks
to the midpoint. If this intermediate result is correct then the
first subtree is ignored and the bug search is repeated on the second
subtree. If the intermediate result is incorrect then the search
continues instead on the first subtree.
------------------------------
Date: 20 Jan 84 19:25:30-PST (Fri)
From: pur-ee!uiucdcs!nielsen @ Ucb-Vax
Subject: Re: Expert systems for software debuggin - (nf)
Article-I.D.: uiucdcs.4980
The Knowledge Based Programming Assistant Project here at the University of
Illinois was founded as a result of a very similar proposal.
A thesis you may be interested in which explains some of our work is
"GPSI : An Expert System to Aid in Program Debugging" by Andrew Laursen
which should be available through the university.
I would be very interested in corresponding with anyone who is considering
the use of expert systems in program debugging.
Paul Nielsen
{pur-ee, ihnp4}!uiucdcs!nielsen
nielsen@uiucdcs
------------------------------
Date: 01/19/84 22:25:55
From: PLUKEL
Subject: January Monthly Meeting, Greater Boston Chapter/ACM
[Forwarded from MIT by SASW@MIT-MC.]
On behalf of GBC/ACM, J. Elliott Smith, the Lecture Chairman, is
pleased to present a discussion on the topic of
LOGIC PROGRAMMING
Henryk Jan Komorowski
Division of Applied Sciences
Harvard University
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Dr. Komorowski is an Assistant Professor of Computer Science,
who received his MS from Warsaw University and his Phd from
Linkoeping University, Linkoeping, Sweden, in 1981. His current
research interests include applications of logic programming to:
rapid prototyping, programming/specification development envir-
onments, expert systems, and databases.
Dr. Komorowski's articles have appeared in proceedings of
the IXth POPL, the 1980 Logic Programming Workshop (Debrecen,
Hungary), and the book "Logic Programming", edited by Clark and
Taernlund. He acted as Program Chairman for the recent IEEE
Prolog tutorial at Brandies University, is serving on the Program
Committee of the 1984 Logic Programming Symposium (Atlantic
City), and is a member of the Editorial Board of THE JOURNAL OF
LOGIC PROGRAMMING.
Prolog has been selected as the programming language of the
Japanese Fifth Generation Computer Project. It is the first
realization of logic programming ideas, and implements a theorem
prover based on a design attributed to J.A. Robinson, which
limits resolution to a Horn clause subset of assertions.
A Prolog program is a collection of true statements in the
form of RULES. A computation is a proof from these assertions.
Numerous implementations of Prolog have elaborated Alain
Colmerauer's original, including Dr. Komorowski's own Qlog, which
operates in LISP environments.
Dr. Komorowski will present an introduction to elementary
logic programming concepts and an overview of more advanced
topics, including metalevel inference, expert systems
programming, databases, and natural language processing.
DATE: Thursday, 26 January 1984
TIME: 8:00 PM
PLACE: Intermetrics Atrium
733 Concord Avenue
Cambridge, MA
(near Fresh Pond Circle)
COMPUTER MOVIE and REFRESHMENTS before the talk.
Lecture dinner at 6pm open to all GBC members.
Call (617) 444-5222 for additional details.
------------------------------
Date: 20 Jan 84 1006 PST
From: Rod Brooks <ROD@SU-AI>
Subject: Shaprio Seminars at Stanford and Berkeley
[Adapted from the SU-SCORE bboard and the Prolog Digest.]
Ehud Shapiro, The Weizmann Institute of Science
The Bagel: A Systolic Concurrent Prolog Machine
4:30pm, Terman Auditorium, Tues, Jan 24th, Stanford CSD Colloq.
1:30pm, Evans 597, Wed., Jan 2th, Berkeley Prolog Seminar
It is argued that explicit mapping of processes to processors is
essential to effectively program a general-purpose parallel computer,
and, as a consequence, that the kernel language of such a computer
should include a process-to-processor mapping notation.
The Bagel is a parallel architecture that combines concepts of
dataflow, graph-reduction and systolic arrays. The Bagel's kernel
language is Concurrent Prolog, augmented with Turtle programs as a
mapping notation.
Concurrent Prolog, combined with Turtle programs, can easily implement
systolic systems on the Bagel. Several systolic process structures are
explored via programming examples, including linear pipes (sieve of
Erasthotenes, merge sort, natural-language interface to a database),
rectangular arrays (rectangular matrix multiplication, band-matrix
multiplication, dynamic programming, array relaxation), static and
dynamic H-trees (divide-and-conquer, distributed database), and
chaotic structures (a herd of Turtles).
All programs shown have been debugged using the Turtle graphics Bagel
simulator, which is implemented in Prolog.
------------------------------
Date: Fri 20 Jan 84 14:56:58-PST
From: Jayadev Misra <MISRA@SU-SIERRA.ARPA>
Subject: call for Papers- Principles of Distributed Computing
CALL FOR PAPERS
3rd ACM SIGACT-SIGOPS Symposium on Principles of Distributed Computing (PODC)
Vancouver, Canada
August 27 - 29, 1984
This conference will address fundamental issues in the theory and
practice of concurrent and distributed systems. Original
research papers describing theoretical or practical aspects of
specification. design or implementation of such systems are
sought. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the
following aspects of concurrent and distributed systems.
. Algorithms
. Formal models of computations
. Methodologies for program development
. Issues in specifications, semantics and verifications
. Complexity results
. Languages
. Fundamental results in application areas such as
distributed databases, communication protocols, distributed
operating systems, distributed transaction processing systems,
real time systems.
Please send eleven copies of a detailed abstract (not a complete
paper) not exceeding 10 double spaced typewritten pages, by MARCH
8, 1984, to the Program Chairman:
Prof. J. Misra
Computer Science Department
University of Texas
Austin, Texas 78712
The abstract must include a clear description of the problem be-
ing addressed, comparisons with extant work and a section on ma-
jor original contributions of this work. The abstract must pro-
vide sufficient detail for the program committee to make a deci-
sion. Papers will be chosen on the basis of scientific merit,
originality, clarity and appropriateness for this conference.
Authors will be notified of acceptance by April 30, 1984. Ac-
cepted papers, typed on special forms, are due at the above ad-
dress by June 1, 1984. Authors of accepted papers will be asked
to sign ACM Copyright forms.
The Conference Chairman is Professor Tiko Kameda (Simon Fraser
University). The Publicity Chairman is Professor Nicola Santoro
(Carleton University). The Local Arrangement Chiarman is Profes-
sor Joseph Peters (Simon Fraser University). The Program Commit-
tee consists of Ed Clarke (C.M.U.), Greg N. Frederickson (Pur-
due), Simon Lam (U of Texas, Austin), Leslie Lamport (SRI Inter-
national), Michael Malcom (U of Waterloo), J. Misra, Program
Chairman (U of Texas, Austin), Hector G. Molina (Princeton), Su-
san Owicki (Stanford), Fred Schneider (Cornell), H. Ray Strong
(I.B.M. San Jose), and Howard Sturgis (Xerox Parc).
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End of AIList Digest
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