CLIPS assignment - rule-based systems

1. Learn about CLIPS language and system, eg. read the official tutorial available on the net, as well as here.
   Another tutorial, written in Polish by a friend of mine, is available here.

2. Work out a sample problem, such that can be solved with a rule knowledge base. Preferably, pick a domain, where you can be an expert -- this can be your hobby, or some topic that fascinates you, and you would like to advise other people on. For example:
   • menu selection for a dinner on some significant occasion,
   • wine selection to match a dinner menu,
   • equipment selection and configuration for some venture, like a mountain climbing excursion,
   • a composition of crops for the home garden,
   • advice on a financial investment package,
   • advice on a decision to buy or sell stock,
   • etc.
   If you can not or do not want to use a domain from which you are a real expert, then a topic for this assignment can be invented. But the whole scenario should be carefully and realistically conceived, to be able to provide realistic problems to solve, and to be able to assess the value of the response.

3. Write a program in CLIPS as a set of rules, initial facts, constants, functions, etc. Debug it, test on some simple cases first, then try solving some more realistic examples.

   Remember, and expert system does not have to solve all problems correctly. Like a human expert, its knowledge is limited, and it may make mistakes. And a simple prototype developed in a short time, must make mistakes. If the system gives wrong asnwers because it lacks adequate rules (knowledge), then everything is fine, you do not have to achieve 100% performance. If, however, the system has the right rules, but does not use them correctly, then something is wrong with your program, and you have to keep working.

4. Pay attention to the following:
   • knowledge should be in rules; it is possible to write a fully functional program in CLIPS (in the sense of functional programming), or an object-oriented program, but that is not the objective (it is also possible to write rules in such a way that they only serve to invoke functions, and this is also wrong)
   • do not use the salience declaration in rules to enforce a specific order of their firing; if your program executes rules in a wrong order, then do not change the rules; instead, first try to change the strategy, CLIPS has 7 strategies to choose, try the mea or lex strategy (set-strategy mea) - if this does not help then ask the lecturer for advice

5. There are two known interpreters of CLIPS. One is the original program from NASA, called CLIPS, now available as open-source. It is written in C, and can be embedded in another system as an artificial intelligence module. It can also call external functions. CLIPS is available at the department laboratory computers. There is a IDE version of CLIPS for Windows, with windowed editor and mini runtime system.

   The second interpreter of the language, named JESS, is a new commercial product written in Java. 30-day demo versions are available for popular operating systems.