A knowledge-based electronic information and documentation system

摘要

We describe the capabilities of a knowledge-based system to automatically generate a collection of electronic notebooks containing various forms of online documentation and reports. This system is a subsystem of a larger knowledge-based system called SciNapse. SciNapse's raison d'etre is to transform high-level simulation problem specifications into executable numerical programs. The electronic notebooks are generated from the same domain knowledge bases that the system uses to perform its primary tasks. These online notebooks are of two different kinds: reference materials and reports. Reference materials are generated from the latest version of the knowledge base, which includes the classes that drive the system, and a network of objects representing meta-information about the system. The reference materials document the system's capabilities and help users understand what the system can do. Reports are generated from the instances created by a run of the system. They document the transformations the input specification underwent in becoming code, and are intended to help a user understand what the system has done.

We have found that our approach to producing documents has both advantages and disadvantages when compared with more traditional approaches to documentation. The advantages are that we can minimize the manual effort that is involved in writing documentation about the system, while at the same time maximizing the accuracy of the documentation that is produced.

The main disadvantage has been the lack of truly appropriate authoring tools built to work in our environment. When we began, we expected the task of creating such authoring tools to be much easier than it has turned out to be. Later in this paper, we explore some of the factors that have caused this to be the case.