Ideas About Management Of LISP Data Bases

T w o reasons for such systems are seen (I) As A . I . programs develop from toy domains using toy data bases, to more realistic exercies. the management of the knowledge base becomes nont r i v i a l and requires program support (2) A powerful way to organize LISP programs is to make them data-driven, whereby pieces of program are distributed throughout a data base A data base management system facilitates the use of this programming style T h e paper describes and discusses the basic Ideas in the DABA system as well as the technique of data-driven programs 1. Focus on t h e data base. I n this paper 1 w i l l attempt to say three things at once Tha t stylistic experiment is undertaken not out of choice, but out of necessity the three topics are intertwined, and none of them can be discussed without the context of the others T h e first topic regards the attitude to data bases I shall argue that the current thinking about data bases in A.I has missed an important point, which can be tersely characterized as the separate identity of the data base, independently of the program(s) that use