An architecture for knowledge-based front ends

摘要

The problem of constructing knowledge-based front-ends to existing software systems is considered. An architecture for such a front-end is proposed that has, as its central component, a module known as the Harness. The Harness provides the communication facilities required by the various elements of the knowledge-based front-end as well as handling the interactions with the user. It, therefore, extends the notion of a user-interface management system to be applicable to the problem of integrating diverse and unmodified software systems to provide a single user service together with the necessary support.