Knowledge Explorer News No. 18
July 1, 2002

KE version 4.1

After a 3 year vacation, I am once again actively working on Knowledge Explorer.
Version 4.1 introduces a number of significant changes, as detailed below.

1. improved grammar

By introducing a new reserved word, od, I was able to get rid of the parentheses.
The new grammar has a uniform syntax for all actions, including ke commands
and shell commands, and has a new assignment statement syntax which matches
the structure of attribute declarations. The new syntax permits command names
and variable names to be phrases, rather than single words.

The new syntax for action, command and assignment is

product :=
subject do action = event
od direct object
with characteristic
from initial characteristic
to final characteristic
done

do command od argument list # ke do command ... done
with characteristic
from initial characteristic
to final characteristic
done

! command od argument list # sh do command ... done
with characteristic
from initial characteristic
to final characteristic
done

set variable = value # ke has variable = value
set .. = next # set current genus
set . = concept # set current concept
set ... = next # set current species

As usual, all grammatical elements can be single phrases, or comma-separated lists
of phrases.

2. improved documentation

I have been rewriting a lot of the examples and documentation. I particularly suggest
that you look at

KEHOME/view/identify/axprop.txt Axiomatic Propositions
KEHOME/doc/KRgrammar.txt new
KEHOME/doc/KRtoken.txt new
KEHOME/doc/KEtutorial.txt see section 18 -- individual & collective concepts

In section 18 of the KE tutorial, I have adopted a new definition of group,
exgroup (exclusive), and ingroup (inclusive).

3. improved implementation

I have reworked the low-level parsing (token level), making it more uniform and efficient.
Previously, the word definition was changed during relation and hierarchy definition.
Now, the words are unchanged -- only the phrase definition changes.

4. new policy re KE source code

I am now distributing KE source code with the object code, i.e., every download contains
the complete source code. You are free to make any changes to your own downloaded
copy of KE. The only caveat is that you will need to download the complete Icon package
if you want to recompile the graphic interfaces (KE smart input menu).

Richard H. McCullough
mailto:rhm@cdepot.net
http://www2.cdepot.net/~rhm
knowledge := man do identify od existent done