TheME: An Environment for Building Formal KADS-II Models of Expertise

摘要

COMMONKADS is a well-known methodology for the development of knowledge-basedsystems (KBS). In this methodology one constructs so-called models of expertise as a basis for the development. A new feature with respect to older versions of the KADS methodology is a formal version of these models, whereby models of expertise are expressed in a special logical language called (ML)sup 2 that is tailored to the needs of KBS methodology. The paper presents TheME, an environment for constructing and manipulating these formal models of expertise. It considers the role of formal methods in conceptual knowledge modelling and briefly introduces the ingredients of the formal framework. Next, it discusses the rationale behind the TheME environment that supports the formalization process. The functionality of the environment is described and illustrated in detail and experiences and future developments are discussed. TheME constitutes one of the tools of the COMMONKADS knowledge engineering workbench currently under construction.