Knowledge-Based Front-Ends as Games

We present a framework for building complex interactive systems from simple components with particular attention to the development of Knowledge Based Front Ends to software packages The work is motivated from problems with the interactions of GLIMPSE and FAST two Knowledge Based Front Ends developed using logic programming tools and techniques To avoid the pitfalls of GLIMPSE and FAST but to keep their characteristic features we view interaction as a rule governed activity which may be usefully regarded as a game Given a speci cation of the rules implementation of the Knowledge Based Front End requires the construction of an umpire a component that enforces compliance of the players with the rules and thereby controls the interac tion Advice giving components added to the system are analogous to games played in the presence of an advisor who recommends moves to the participants We also investigate how to customise existing games by studying how to expand and lter their moves More generally we examine how to develop compound games built up from sub games coordi nation of moves chosen from sub games is then a key issue This is resolved by treating sub games as active components that communicate the results of interactions from sub games to more complex games illustrated by examples from LAST a reconstruction of the GLIMPSE and FAST systems in the game playing framework