Frequently Asked Questions Frequently Asked QuestionsCLIPS is a productive development and delivery expert system tool which provides a complete environment for the construction of rule and/or object based expert systems. Created in 1985, CLIPS is now widely used throughout the government, industry, and academia. Its key features are:
Knowledge Representation: CLIPS provides a cohesive tool for handling a wide variety of knowledge with support for three different programming paradigms: rule-based, object-oriented and procedural. Rule-based programming allows knowledge to be represented as heuristics, or "rules of thumb," which specify a set of actions to be performed for a given situation. Object-oriented programming allows complex systems to be modeled as modular components (which can be easily reused to model other systems or to create new components). The procedural programming capabilities provided by CLIPS are similar to capabilities found in languages such as C, Java, Ada, and LISP.
Portability: CLIPS is written in C for portability and speed and has been installed on many different operating systems without code changes. Operating systems on which CLIPS has been tested include Windows XP, MacOS X, and Unix. CLIPS can be ported to any system which has an ANSI compliant C or C++ compiler. CLIPS comes with all source code which can be modified or tailored to meet a user's specific needs.
Integration/Extensibility: CLIPS can be embedded within procedural code, called as a subroutine, and integrated with languages such as C, Java, FORTRAN and ADA. CLIPS can be easily extended by a user through the use of several well-defined protocols.
Interactive Development: The standard version of CLIPS provides an interactive, text oriented development environment, including debugging aids, on-line help, and an integrated editor. Interfaces providing features such as pulldown menus, integrated editors, and multiple windows have been developed for the Mac OS X, Windows XP, and X Window environments.
Verification/Validation: CLIPS includes a number of features to support the verification and validation of expert systems including support for modular design and partitioning of a knowledge base, static and dynamic constraint checking of slot values and function arguments, and semantic analysis of rule patterns to determine if inconsistencies could prevent a rule from firing or generate an error.
Fully Documented: CLIPS comes with extensive documentation including a Reference Manual and a User's Guide.
Low Cost: CLIPS is maintained as public domain software.
CLIPS executables, documentation, source code, and examples can be downloaded from the Download Page of the CLIPS Project on SourceForge.
Performance Improvements - Rule performance has been improved particularly in situations with large numbers of fact/instances or partial matches.
64-bit Integers - Integers in CLIPS are now represented using the "long long" C data type which provides a minimum of 64 bits of precision.
Reset after Clear - A reset command is now performed after a clear command (which includes the clear command issued internally by CLIPS when it is started). Since no user constructs will be present after a clear, the primary effect of this behavior is to create the initial-fact and initial-object.
Pattern Addition - The initial-fact and initial-object patterns are no longer used in triggering rules. When printing partial matches, the * symbol is used to indicate a not or exists pattern that is satisfied.
Module Specifiers - A module specifier can be used in expressions to reference a deffunction or defgeneric that is exported by a module, but not specifically imported by the module which is referencing it.
Instance Name and Class Visibility - Instance names now have global scope and must be unique regardless of their module. Instances of classes that are not in scope can be created if the module name is specified as part of the class name. Messages can be sent to instances regardless of whether the instance class is in scope.
Command Prompt - Local variables bound at the command prompt using the bind function persist until a reset or clear command is issued.
MicroEMACS Editor - The built-in editor is no longer supported.
Help Functions - The help and help-path funtions are no longer supported.
Printout Function - The deprecated use of the symbol t as a substitute for the crlf symbol is no longer allowed.
Command and Function Changes - The matches command and open function have modified behavior.
New Functions and Commands - The foreach and operating-system functions have been added.
Behavior Changes - A defgeneric redefinition warning is no longer printed when a defmethod is defined.
Copies of CLIPS executables, documentation, and source code downloaded from the CLIPS Project on SourceForge are subject to the following license agreement:
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so.
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT OF THIRD PARTY RIGHTS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, OR ANY SPECIAL INDIRECT OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.
Questions regarding CLIPS can be posted to one of several online forums including the CLIPS Expert System Group, the SourceForge CLIPS Forums, and Stack Overflow.
Questions regarding CLIPS can be sent via electronic mail to support@clipsrules.net.
There are a number of sources describing applications built using CLIPS:
A bibliography list of CLIPS related books, papers, and articles is contained in Appendix J of the CLIPS Basic Programming Guide.
Proceedings of the Third CLIPS Conference, held in 1994, are available in PDF.
The Proceedings of the First, Fourth, and Fifth Innovative Applications of Artificial Intelligence also contain descriptions of applications built using CLIPS ("An Intelligent Training System for Space Shuttle Flight Controllers" and "Space Shuttle Telemetry Monitoring" in the First, "HUB SIAASHING: A Knowledge-Based System for Severe, Temporary Airline Schedule Reduction" in the Fourth, and "PI-in-a-Box: A Knowledge-based System for Space Science Experimentation" and "The DRAIR Advisor: A Knowledge-Based System for Materiel Deficiency Analysis" in the Fifth).
Expert Systems: Principles and Programming, 4th Edition, by Giarratano and Riley (ISBN 0-534-38447-1), comes with a CD-ROM containing CLIPS 6.22 executables, source code, and documentation. The first half of the book is theory oriented and the second half covers rule-based, procedural, and object-oriented programming using CLIPS.
Introduction To Expert Systems, 3rd Edition, by Jackson (ISBN 0-201-87686-8), contains numerous CLIPS examples and exercises throughout the book.
The Engineering of Knowledge-based Systems: Theory and Practice, by Gonzalez and Dankel (ISBN 0132 769 409), comes with an MS-DOS executable of version 5.1 of CLIPS. The use of CLIPS isn't integrated throughout the book, but there is a 25 page appendix that describes the fundamentals of using the CLIPS executable bundled with the book.
AdaClips is a semi-thick Ada (95) binding to CLIPS.
CLIPS/Ada version 4.4, available from the Open Channel Foundation, is a version of CLIPS developed entirely in Ada and containing a subset of the features found in the C version of CLIPS. CLIPS/Ada version 4.4 contains all of the features found in CLIPS/C version 4.3, and with the exception of the CLIPS Object-Oriented Language, all of the features found in CLIPS/C version 5.0. There are no plans to update CLIPS/Ada to a more recent version of CLIPS/C.
CAPE is a programming environment that combines the CLIPS rule-based system with the Perl procedural programming language.
The clipsmm library is a C++ interface to CLIPS.
KAPICLIPS is A KQML (Knowledge Query & Manipulation Language) API for CLIPS, developed by Ernest Friedman-Hill.
PHLIPS is a PHP extension that provides a basic interface to the CLIPS environment.
PyCLIPS is a Python module that integrates CLIPS into Python.
TclCLIPS provides a Tcl interface to CLIPS
wxCLIPS, developed by Julian Smart, provides a simple graphical front end to CLIPS 5.1/6.0, and in addition contains a suite of extra functions for creating GUI applications in CLIPS.
ZClips allows Zope to interact with CLIPS.
Yes. Version 6.1 and later can be compiled with either an ANSI C or C++ compiler. However, the CLIPS source code only uses features that are available in both the ANSI C and C++ standards. Since the object extensions of C++ are not part of the ANSI C standard, they are not utilized in the CLIPS source code. CLIPS 6.3 comes with starter projects which demonstrate how to build a C++ library.
The clipsmm library is a C++ interface to CLIPS.
There are several DLLs available for use with CLIPS:
The origins of CLIPS date back to 1984 at NASA's Johnson Space Center. At this time, the Artificial Intelligence Section had developed over a dozen prototype expert systems applications using state-of-the-art hardware and software. However, despite extensive demonstrations of the potential of expert systems, few of these applications were put into regular use. This failure to provide expert systems technology within NASA's operational computing constraints could largely be traced to the use of LISP as the base language for nearly all expert system software tools at that time.
The Artificial Intelligence Section felt that the use of a conventional language, such as C, would eliminate most of these problems. Although a number of tool vendors started converting their tools to run in C, the cost of each tool was still very high, most were restricted to a small variety of computers, and the projected availability times were discouraging. To meet all of its needs in a timely and cost effective manner, it became evident that the Artificial Intelligence Section would have to develop its own C based expert system tool.
The prototype version of CLIPS was developed in 1985. Particular attention was given to making the tool compatible with expert systems under development at that time. Thus, the syntax of CLIPS was made to very closely resemble the syntax of a subset of the ART expert system tool developed by Inference Corporation. Although originally modelled from ART, CLIPS was developed entirely without assistance from Inference or access to the ART source code.
The original intent for CLIPS was to gain useful insight and knowledge about the construction of expert system tools and to lay the groundwork for the construction of a replacement tool for the commercial tools currently being used. Version 1.0 demonstrated the feasibility of the project concept. After additional development, it became apparent that CLIPS would be a low cost expert system tool ideal for the purposes of training. Another year of development and internal use went into CLIPS improving its portability, performance, functionality, and supporting documentation. Version 3.0 of CLIPS was made available to groups outside of NASA in the summer of 1986.
Further enhancements transformed CLIPS from a training tool into a tool useful for the development and delivery of expert systems as well. Versions 4.0 and 4.1 of CLIPS, released respectively in the summer and fall of 1987, featured greatly improved performance, external language integration, and delivery capabilities. Version 4.2 of CLIPS, released in the summer of 1988, was a complete rewrite of CLIPS for code modularity. Also included with this release were an architecture manual providing a detailed description of the CLIPS software architecture and a utility program for aiding in the verification and validation of rule-based programs. Version 4.3 of CLIPS, released in the summer of 1989, added still more functionality.
Originally, the primary representation methodology in CLIPS was a forward chaining rule language based on the Rete algorithm (hence the Production System part of the CLIPS acronym). Version 5.0 of CLIPS, released in the spring of 1991, introduced two new programming paradigms: procedural programming (as found in languages such as C and Ada;) and object-oriented programming (as found in languages such as the Common Lisp Object System and Smalltalk). The object-oriented programming language provided within CLIPS is called the CLIPS Object-Oriented Language (COOL). Version 5.1 of CLIPS, released in the fall of 1991, was primarily a software maintenance upgrade required to support the newly developed and/or enhanced X Window, MS-DOS, and Macintosh interfaces. Version 6.0, released in the Spring of 1993, added fully integrated object/rule pattern matching and support features for rule-based software engineering.
In the mid 1990s the focus of the Artifical Intelligence Section (now the Software Technology Branch) shifted away from expert system technology. The principle developers subsequently left NASA. CLIPS is now maintained independently from NASA as public domain software by one of the original program authors. The first public domain release of CLIPS, version 6.1 in 1998, removed support for older non-ANSI C Compilers and added support for C++ compilers. Commands to profile the time spent in constructs and user-defined functions were also added. Version 6.2, released in the Spring of 2002, added support for multiple environments into which programs can be loaded and improved Windows XP and MacOS development interfaces.
CLIPS is an interesting example of technology transfer between the government and private sectors. Syntactically, CLIPS traces its origins to Inference's ART which traced the origins of its rule-based language to OPS5. Later, CLIPS was used by Inference to develop ART-IM (which later became ARTEnterprise, by The Haley Enterprise to develop Eclipse (which later became HaleyRules), and by Production Systems Technology to develop CLIPS/R2. Other languages, such as Jess, adopted syntax similar to ART and CLIPS. This has created a family of tools that share the same basic syntax for the definition of rules. While the features and capabilities of these tools has diverged sufficiently that porting an application taking full advantage of a tool's complete feature set is non-trivial, it's still possible if one uses a restricted subset of features to write portable programs that will run with few if any simple changes.
Version 6.4 will target unicode support; improved integration with other languages (such as C++, .NET, and Java); development environments for .NET, Java, and Mac OS; and examples for common use cases.
Yes and no. It depends on what you mean by a real time application.
If you want guaranteed response time, then the answer is no. Generally speaking, the more robust the pattern matching capabilities of a tool, the more difficult it is to guarantee real time response.
If you need built-in functionality that allows you reason about events as they occur over time, then the answer is no. Many tools designed for real time applications provide features that allow you (among other things) to schedule rules to be checked at a particular time or on a particular time interval, specify how long data is valid, determine trends in data (such as whether it's increasing or decreasing), and synchronize the execution of tasks. In addition, some tools provide extensive facilities for the "non AI" related aspects of developing a real time application such as the graphical interface, simulation, and data acquisition. It's possible to use CLIPS to reason about events as they occur over time--It's just not a built-in feature. You can, for example, add an additional slot to facts which stores their creation time and then use rules which reason based on the contents of this slot.
If by real time you mean that the application is able to keep up with the data as it is received, then the answer is maybe. Almost all expert system tools can keep up with a real time system that only requires decisions to be made in minutes/hours/days. Response time tends to become an issue only when large amounts of data are being processed or decisions are required in seconds or fractions of a second.
CLIPS is based on the Rete pattern matching algorithm. The efficiency of this algorithm is based on the assumption that data changes slowly over time (e.g. a single rule firing affects < 5% of all facts). This assumption would appear to fail miserably for monitoring applications (as well as other applications where rapid data change can occur). If, for example, you have 100 facts representing various sensor values and the sensor values change every second, you have very rapid data changes (assuming you don't have thousands and thousands of facts of other types). It's often possible to comply with the Rete assumption by preprocessing data. For example, if a sensor value changes from 10 to 10.1 and this change is not significant, then it's not necessary to retract the old fact and assert a new fact with the changed sensor value. Another preprocessing approach would be to convert numeric values to symbolic values such as low, nominal, and high and then to retract the old fact and assert a new one only if the symbolic value changed. The major drawback to this approach is that you generally have to write C code to preprocess the data and keep track of pointers to facts so that facts can later be retracted by the preprocessor--Of course if you're dealing with real-time data, you're probably writing some C code anyway.
Virtually all of the system defined functions that come ready to use with CLIPS utilize the same programming interface that you have to use to define your own functions. Look through files in the CLIPS source code such as bmathfun.c, iofun.c, miscfun.c, prdctfun.c, emathfun.c, filecom.c, and multifun.c for examples.
A run-time program will not run any faster than a program loaded using the load or bload commands. The constructs-to-c command used to generate a run-time program creates files containing the C data structures that would dynamically be allocated if the load or bload command was used. With the exception of some initialization routines, the constructs-to-c command does not generate any executable code. The primary benefits of creating a run-time program are: applications can be delivered as a single executable file; loading constructs as part of an executable is faster than loading them from an text or binary file; the CLIPS portion of the run-time program is smaller because the code needed to parse constructs can be discarded; and less memory is required to represent your program's constructs since memory for them is statically rather than dynamically allocated.
There are no plans to write a 6.X Architecture Manual. Copies of the CLIPS 5.1 Architecture Manual are still bundled with the CLIPS documentation.
Inquiries about consulting, training, or other employment opportunities can be sent to support@clipsrules.net.
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CLIPSJNI Version 0.2 BetaA beta version of CLIPSJNI, a Java Native Interface for CLIPS, is available for download on the SourceForge CLIPS Download Page.
Version 0.1 demonstrates basic techniques for integrating CLIPS with a GUI and comes with three examples of CLIPS programs integrated with a Swing front end.
Version 0.2 adds an additional example and demonstrates how to build a GUI using languages other than English. Example software generated translations are provided for Spanish, Japanese, Russian, and Arabic.
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Last Update February 7, 2008 Gary Riley |
Consulting/Training/EmploymentI'm currently searching for employment opportunities (preferably in the Houston area or telecommuting).
+ +Inquiries about consulting, training, or other employment opportunities can be sent to gdrworkYYYY@swbell.net or +clipsYYYY@swbell.net where YYYY is the current year (for example, 2008).
+ + + + + + CLIPS Download AreaThis is the primary site for obtaining the latest release of CLIPS. The current +release is CLIPS 6.2 and is available in the +the Download Area.
+ +Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining +a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), +to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation +the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, and/or sell +copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is +furnished to do so.
+ +THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS +OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, +FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT OF THIRD PARTY RIGHTS. +IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, OR ANY SPECIAL +INDIRECT OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM +LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE +OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR +PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.
+ +CLIPS is released as public domain software and as such you are under no +obligation to pay for its use. However, if you derive commercial or monetary +benefit from use of the software or just want to show support, please consider +making a voluntary payment based on the worth of the software to you as +compensation for the time and effort required to develop and maintain CLIPS. +Payments can be made online at http://order.kagi.com/?JKT.
+ +Enter Download Area + +Please take a few minutes to register CLIPS by sending email to clipsYYYY@ghg.net +where YYYY is the current year (for example, 2004). Include the words 'CLIPS REGISTRATION' +in your subject line. Indicate your company/government/university affiliation (if any), +what version of CLIPS you are using, the source of your copy (CLIPS web site, textbook, etc.), +and any other information you'd like to provide about your use of CLIPS.
+ +Expert +Systems: Principles and Programming, 3rd Edition, by Giarratano and +Riley (ISBN 0-534-95053-1 from Thomson +Learning) comes with a CD-ROM containing CLIPS 6.05 executables, source +code, and documentation. The first half of the book is theory oriented and +the second half covers rule-based programming using CLIPS.
+ + + +
What are Expert Systems?One of the results of research in the area of artificial intelligence +has been the development of techniques which allow the modeling of information +at higher levels of abstraction. These techniques are embodied in languages +or tools which allow programs to be built that closely resemble human logic +in their implementation and are therefore easier to develop and maintain. +These programs, which emulate human expertise in well defined problem domains, +are called expert systems. The availability of expert system tools, such +as CLIPS, has greatly reduced the effort and cost involved in developing +an expert system.
+ +Rule-based programming is one of the most commonly used techniques for +developing expert systems. In this programming paradigm, rules are used +to represent heuristics, or "rules of thumb," which specify a +set of actions to be performed for a given situation. A rule is composed +of an if portion and a then portion. The if portion +of a rule is a series of patterns which specify the facts (or data) which +cause the rule to be applicable. The process of matching facts to patterns +is called pattern matching. The expert system tool provides a mechanism, +called the inference engine, which automatically matches facts against patterns +and determines which rules are applicable. The if portion of a rule +can actually be thought of as the whenever portion of a rule since +pattern matching always occurs whenever changes are made to facts. The then +portion of a rule is the set of actions to be executed when the rule is +applicable. The actions of applicable rules are executed when the inference +engine is instructed to begin execution. The inference engine selects a +rule and then the actions of the selected rule are executed (which may affect +the list of applicable rules by adding or removing facts). The inference +engine then selects another rule and executes its actions. This process +continues until no applicable rules remain.
+ + + +
+
Frequently Asked QuestionsCLIPS is a productive development and delivery expert system tool which provides a complete environment for the construction of rule and/or object based expert systems. Created in 1985, CLIPS is now widely used throughout the government, industry, and academia. Its key features are:
Knowledge Representation: CLIPS provides a cohesive tool for handling a wide variety of knowledge with support for three different programming paradigms: rule-based, object-oriented and procedural. Rule-based programming allows knowledge to be represented as heuristics, or "rules of thumb," which specify a set of actions to be performed for a given situation. Object-oriented programming allows complex systems to be modeled as modular components (which can be easily reused to model other systems or to create new components). The procedural programming capabilities provided by CLIPS are similar to capabilities found in languages such as C, Java, Ada, and LISP.
Portability: CLIPS is written in C for portability and speed and has been installed on many different operating systems without code changes. Operating systems on which CLIPS has been tested include Windows XP, MacOS X, and Unix. CLIPS can be ported to any system which has an ANSI compliant C or C++ compiler. CLIPS comes with all source code which can be modified or tailored to meet a user's specific needs.
Integration/Extensibility: CLIPS can be embedded within procedural code, called as a subroutine, and integrated with languages such as C, Java, FORTRAN and ADA. CLIPS can be easily extended by a user through the use of several well-defined protocols.
Interactive Development: The standard version of CLIPS provides an interactive, text oriented development environment, including debugging aids, on-line help, and an integrated editor. Interfaces providing features such as pulldown menus, integrated editors, and multiple windows have been developed for the Mac OS X, Windows XP, and X Window environments.
Verification/Validation: CLIPS includes a number of features to support the verification and validation of expert systems including support for modular design and partitioning of a knowledge base, static and dynamic constraint checking of slot values and function arguments, and semantic analysis of rule patterns to determine if inconsistencies could prevent a rule from firing or generate an error.
Fully Documented: CLIPS comes with extensive documentation including a Reference Manual and a User's Guide.
Low Cost: CLIPS is maintained as public domain software.
CLIPS executables, documentation, source code, and examples can be downloaded from the Download Page of the CLIPS Project on SourceForge.
CLIPS now provides a mechanism which allows an embedded application to create multiple environments into which programs can be loaded.
An improved Windows XP CLIPS interface is now available and the Macintosh CLIPS interface has been enhanced to support Mac OS X.
Copies of CLIPS executables, documentation, and source code downloaded from the CLIPS Project on SourceForge are subject to the following license agreement:
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so.
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT OF THIRD PARTY RIGHTS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, OR ANY SPECIAL INDIRECT OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.
The CLIPS Expert System Group is a forum for the discussion of CLIPS related topics.
Questions regarding CLIPS can be sent via electronic mail to clipsYYYY@swbell.net where YYYY is the current year (for example, 2008). Include the words 'CLIPS USER' in the subject line.
The CLIPS Project on SourceForge also has a Forums Page.
There are a number of sources describing applications built using CLIPS:
A bibliography list of CLIPS related books, papers, and articles is contained in Appendix J of the CLIPS Basic Programming Guide.
Proceedings of the Third CLIPS Conference, held in 1994, are available in PDF.
The Proceedings of the First, Fourth, and Fifth Innovative Applications of Artificial Intelligence also contain descriptions of applications built using CLIPS ("An Intelligent Training System for Space Shuttle Flight Controllers" and "Space Shuttle Telemetry Monitoring" in the First, "HUB SIAASHING: A Knowledge-Based System for Severe, Temporary Airline Schedule Reduction" in the Fourth, and "PI-in-a-Box: A Knowledge-based System for Space Science Experimentation" and "The DRAIR Advisor: A Knowledge-Based System for Materiel Deficiency Analysis" in the Fifth).
Expert Systems: Principles and Programming, 4th Edition, by Giarratano and Riley (ISBN 0-534-38447-1), comes with a CD-ROM containing CLIPS 6.22 executables, source code, and documentation. The first half of the book is theory oriented and the second half covers rule-based, procedural, and object-oriented programming using CLIPS. For more information, contact Course Technology.
Introduction To Expert Systems, 3rd Edition, by Jackson (ISBN 0-201-87686-8), contains numerous CLIPS examples and exercises throughout the book. For more information, contact Addison Wesley.
The Engineering of Knowledge-based Systems: Theory and Practice, by Gonzalez and Dankel (ISBN 0132 769 409), comes with an MS-DOS executable of version 5.1 of CLIPS. The use of CLIPS isn't integrated throughout the book, but there is a 25 page appendix that describes the fundamentals of using the CLIPS executable bundled with the book. For more information, contact Prentice Hall.
AdaClips is a semi-thick Ada (95) binding to CLIPS.
CLIPS/Ada version 4.4, available from the Open Channel Foundation, is a version of CLIPS developed entirely in Ada and containing a subset of the features found in the C version of CLIPS. CLIPS/Ada version 4.4 contains all of the features found in CLIPS/C version 4.3, and with the exception of the CLIPS Object-Oriented Language, all of the features found in CLIPS/C version 5.0. There are no plans to update CLIPS/Ada to a more recent version of CLIPS/C.
CAPE is a programming environment that combines the CLIPS rule-based system with the Perl procedural programming language.
The clipsmm library is a C++ interface to CLIPS.
ClipsNet integrates CLIPS projects into the .Net framework by making the CLIPS environment available through both managed and unmanaged code.
The Clips .NET Lib integrates .NET and CLIPS. This library is distributed with source code.
FuzzyCLIPS 1.5 is an extension of CLIPS incorporating fuzzy logic. FuzzyCLIPS includes all CLIPS 5.1 capabilities and adds the fuzzy logic processing capability.
FuzzyCLIPS 6.04 is an extended version of CLIPS 6.04 for representing and manipulating fuzzy facts and rules. In addition to the CLIPS functionality, FuzzyCLIPS can deal with exact, fuzzy (or inexact), and combined reasoning, allowing fuzzy and normal terms to be freely mixed in the rules and facts of an expert system. The system uses two basic inexact concepts, fuzziness and uncertainty. It was developed by the Knowledge Systems Laboratory of the National Research Council of Canada (and is a different tool than the previously mentioned FuzzyCLIPS 1.5 developed by Togai InfraLogic).
KAPICLIPS is A KQML (Knowledge Query & Manipulation Language) API for CLIPS, developed by Ernest Friedman-Hill.
LuaCLIPS combines Lua, an open source scripting language, with CLIPS in a Lua accessible Windows DLL.
ObjectiveCLIPS, a framework that lets you build Mac GUIs on top of CLIPS deftemplates which are derived from persistent Core Data objects.
PerlCLIPS is an integration between Perl and CLIPS.
PHLIPS is a PHP extension that provides a basic interface to the CLIPS environment.
PyCLIPS is a Python module that integrates CLIPS into Python.
TclCLIPS provides a Tcl interface to CLIPS
wxCLIPS, developed by Julian Smart, provides a simple graphical front end to CLIPS 5.1/6.0, and in addition contains a suite of extra functions for creating GUI applications in CLIPS.
ZClips allows Zope to interact with CLIPS.
Yes. Version 6.1 and later can be compiled with either an ANSI C or C++ compiler. However, the CLIPS source code only uses features that are available in both the ANSI C and C++ standards. Since the object extensions of C++ are not part of the ANSI C standard, they are not utilized in the CLIPS source code. CLIPS 6.3 comes with starter projects which demonstrate how to build a C++ library.
The clipsmm library is a C++ interface to CLIPS.
There are several DLLs available for use with CLIPS:
The Clips .NET Lib integrates .NET and CLIPS. This library is distributed with source code.
CLIPS 6.3 comes with starter projects that demonstrate how to build a DLL.
ClipsNet integrates CLIPS projects into the .Net framework by making the CLIPS environment available through both managed and unmanaged code.
A DLL, ActiveX Control, and other items of interest for CLIPS 6.2 are available here.
The origins of CLIPS date back to 1984 at NASA's Johnson Space Center. At this time, the Artificial Intelligence Section had developed over a dozen prototype expert systems applications using state-of-the-art hardware and software. However, despite extensive demonstrations of the potential of expert systems, few of these applications were put into regular use. This failure to provide expert systems technology within NASA's operational computing constraints could largely be traced to the use of LISP as the base language for nearly all expert system software tools at that time.
The Artificial Intelligence Section felt that the use of a conventional language, such as C, would eliminate most of these problems. Although a number of tool vendors started converting their tools to run in C, the cost of each tool was still very high, most were restricted to a small variety of computers, and the projected availability times were discouraging. To meet all of its needs in a timely and cost effective manner, it became evident that the Artificial Intelligence Section would have to develop its own C based expert system tool.
The prototype version of CLIPS was developed in 1985. Particular attention was given to making the tool compatible with expert systems under development at that time. Thus, the syntax of CLIPS was made to very closely resemble the syntax of a subset of the ART expert system tool developed by Inference Corporation. Although originally modelled from ART, CLIPS was developed entirely without assistance from Inference or access to the ART source code.
The original intent for CLIPS was to gain useful insight and knowledge about the construction of expert system tools and to lay the groundwork for the construction of a replacement tool for the commercial tools currently being used. Version 1.0 demonstrated the feasibility of the project concept. After additional development, it became apparent that CLIPS would be a low cost expert system tool ideal for the purposes of training. Another year of development and internal use went into CLIPS improving its portability, performance, functionality, and supporting documentation. Version 3.0 of CLIPS was made available to groups outside of NASA in the summer of 1986.
Further enhancements transformed CLIPS from a training tool into a tool useful for the development and delivery of expert systems as well. Versions 4.0 and 4.1 of CLIPS, released respectively in the summer and fall of 1987, featured greatly improved performance, external language integration, and delivery capabilities. Version 4.2 of CLIPS, released in the summer of 1988, was a complete rewrite of CLIPS for code modularity. Also included with this release were an architecture manual providing a detailed description of the CLIPS software architecture and a utility program for aiding in the verification and validation of rule-based programs. Version 4.3 of CLIPS, released in the summer of 1989, added still more functionality.
Originally, the primary representation methodology in CLIPS was a forward chaining rule language based on the Rete algorithm (hence the Production System part of the CLIPS acronym). Version 5.0 of CLIPS, released in the spring of 1991, introduced two new programming paradigms: procedural programming (as found in languages such as C and Ada;) and object-oriented programming (as found in languages such as the Common Lisp Object System and Smalltalk). The object-oriented programming language provided within CLIPS is called the CLIPS Object-Oriented Language (COOL). Version 5.1 of CLIPS, released in the fall of 1991, was primarily a software maintenance upgrade required to support the newly developed and/or enhanced X Window, MS-DOS, and Macintosh interfaces. Version 6.0, released in the Spring of 1993, added fully integrated object/rule pattern matching and support features for rule-based software engineering.
In the mid 1990s the focus of the Artifical Intelligence Section (now the Software Technology Branch) shifted away from expert system technology. The principle developers subsequently left NASA. CLIPS is now maintained independently from NASA as public domain software by one of the original program authors. The first public domain release of CLIPS, version 6.1 in 1998, removed support for older non-ANSI C Compilers and added support for C++ compilers. Commands to profile the time spent in constructs and user-defined functions were also added. Version 6.2, released in the Spring of 2002, added support for multiple environments into which programs can be loaded and improved Windows XP and MacOS development interfaces.
CLIPS is an interesting example of technology transfer between the government and private sectors. Syntactically, CLIPS traces its origins to Inference's ART which traced the origins of its rule-based language to OPS5. Later, CLIPS was used by Inference to develop ART-IM (which later became ARTEnterprise, by The Haley Enterprise to develop Eclipse (which later became HaleyRules), and by Production Systems Technology to develop CLIPS/R2. Other languages, such as Jess, adopted syntax similar to ART and CLIPS. This has created a family of tools that share the same basic syntax for the definition of rules. While the features and capabilities of these tools has diverged sufficiently that porting an application taking full advantage of a tool's complete feature set is non-trivial, it's still possible if one uses a restricted subset of features to write portable programs that will run with few if any simple changes.
Version 6.3 will target rule performance, improved integration with other languages (such as C++, .NET, and Java), and examples for common use cases. Version 6.4 will target unicode support.
Yes and no. It depends on what you mean by a real time application.
If you want guaranteed response time, then the answer is no. Generally speaking, the more robust the pattern matching capabilities of a tool, the more difficult it is to guarantee real time response.
If you need built-in functionality that allows you reason about events as they occur over time, then the answer is no. Many tools designed for real time applications provide features that allow you (among other things) to schedule rules to be checked at a particular time or on a particular time interval, specify how long data is valid, determine trends in data (such as whether it's increasing or decreasing), and synchronize the execution of tasks. In addition, some tools provide extensive facilities for the "non AI" related aspects of developing a real time application such as the graphical interface, simulation, and data acquisition. It's possible to use CLIPS to reason about events as they occur over time--It's just not a built-in feature. You can, for example, add an additional slot to facts which stores their creation time and then use rules which reason based on the contents of this slot.
If by real time you mean that the application is able to keep up with the data as it is received, then the answer is maybe. Almost all expert system tools can keep up with a real time system that only requires decisions to be made in minutes/hours/days. Response time tends to become an issue only when large amounts of data are being processed or decisions are required in seconds or fractions of a second.
CLIPS is based on the Rete pattern matching algorithm. The efficiency of this algorithm is based on the assumption that data changes slowly over time (e.g. a single rule firing affects < 5% of all facts). This assumption would appear to fail miserably for monitoring applications (as well as other applications where rapid data change can occur). If, for example, you have 100 facts representing various sensor values and the sensor values change every second, you have very rapid data changes (assuming you don't have thousands and thousands of facts of other types). It's often possible to comply with the Rete assumption by preprocessing data. For example, if a sensor value changes from 10 to 10.1 and this change is not significant, then it's not necessary to retract the old fact and assert a new fact with the changed sensor value. Another preprocessing approach would be to convert numeric values to symbolic values such as low, nominal, and high and then to retract the old fact and assert a new one only if the symbolic value changed. The major drawback to this approach is that you generally have to write C code to preprocess the data and keep track of pointers to facts so that facts can later be retracted by the preprocessor--Of course if you're dealing with real-time data, you're probably writing some C code anyway.
Virtually all of the system defined functions that come ready to use with CLIPS utilize the same programming interface that you have to use to define your own functions. Look through files in the CLIPS source code such as bmathfun.c, iofun.c, miscfun.c, prdctfun.c, emathfun.c, filecom.c, and multifun.c for examples.
A run-time program will not run any faster than a program loaded using the load or bload commands. The constructs-to-c command used to generate a run-time program creates files containing the C data structures that would dynamically be allocated if the load or bload command was used. With the exception of some initialization routines, the constructs-to-c command does not generate any executable code. The primary benefits of creating a run-time program are: applications can be delivered as a single executable file; loading constructs as part of an executable is faster than loading them from an text or binary file; the CLIPS portion of the run-time program is smaller because the code needed to parse constructs can be discarded; and less memory is required to represent your program's constructs since memory for them is statically rather than dynamically allocated.
There are no plans to write a 6.X Architecture Manual. Copies of the CLIPS 5.1 Architecture Manual are still bundled with the CLIPS documentation.
Inquiries about consulting, training, or other employment opportunities can be sent to gdrworkYYYY@swbell.net or clipsYYYY@swbell.net where YYYY is the current year (for example, 2008).
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Last Update January 25, 2008 Gary Riley |
The History of CLIPSThe origins of the C Language Integrated Production System (CLIPS) date +back to 1984 at NASA's +Johnson Space Center. +At this time, the Artificial Intelligence Section (later the Software Technology +Branch, Client/Server Systems +Branch, and now the Information Technology Office) had developed over +a dozen prototype expert systems applications using state-of-the-art hardware +and software. However, despite extensive demonstrations of the potential +of expert systems, few of these applications were put into regular use. +This failure to provide expert systems technology within NASA's operational +computing constraints could largely be traced to the use of LISP as the +base language for nearly all expert system software tools at that time. +In particular, three problems hindered the use of LISP based expert system +tools within NASA: the low availability of LISP on a wide variety of conventional +computers, the high cost of state-of-the-art LISP tools and hardware, and +the poor integration of LISP with other languages (making embedded applications +difficult).
+ +The Artificial Intelligence Section felt that the use of a conventional +language, such as C, would eliminate most of these problems, and initially +looked to the expert system tool vendors to provide an expert system tool +written using a conventional language. Although a number of tool vendors +started converting their tools to run in C, the cost of each tool was still +very high, most were restricted to a small variety of computers, and the +projected availability times were discouraging. To meet all of its needs +in a timely and cost effective manner, it became evident that the Artificial +Intelligence Section would have to develop its own C based expert system +tool.
+ +The prototype version of CLIPS was developed in the spring of 1985 in +a little over two months. Particular attention was given to making the tool +compatible with expert systems under development at that time by the Artificial +Intelligence Section. Thus, the syntax of CLIPS was made to very closely +resemble the syntax of a subset of the ART expert system tool developed +by Inference Corporation. Although originally modelled from ART, CLIPS was +developed entirely without assistance from Inference or access to the ART +source code.
+ +The original intent for CLIPS was to gain useful insight and knowledge +about the construction of expert system tools and to lay the groundwork +for the construction of a replacement tool for the commercial tools currently +being used. Version 1.0 demonstrated the feasibility of the project concept. +After additional development, it became apparent that CLIPS would be a low +cost expert system tool ideal for the purposes of training. Another year +of development and internal use went into CLIPS improving its portability, +performance, functionality, and supporting documentation. Version 3.0 of +CLIPS was made available to groups outside of NASA in the summer of 1986.
+ +Further enhancements transformed CLIPS from a training tool into a tool +useful for the development and delivery of expert systems as well. Versions +4.0 and 4.1 of CLIPS, released respectively in the summer and fall of 1987, +featured greatly improved performance, external language integration, and +delivery capabilities. Version 4.2 of CLIPS, released in the summer of 1988, +was a complete rewrite of CLIPS for code modularity. Also included with +this release were an architecture manual providing a detailed description +of the CLIPS software architecture and a utility program for aiding in the +verification and validation of rule-based programs. Version 4.3 of CLIPS, +released in the summer of 1989, added still more functionality.
+ +Originally, the primary representation methodology in CLIPS was a forward +chaining rule language based on the Rete algorithm (hence the Production +System part of the CLIPS acronym). Version 5.0 of CLIPS, released in the +spring of 1991, introduced two new programming paradigms: procedural programming +(as found in languages such as C and Ada;) and object-oriented programming +(as found in languages such as the Common Lisp Object System and Smalltalk). +The object-oriented programming language provided within CLIPS is called +the CLIPS Object-Oriented Language (COOL). Version 5.1 of CLIPS, released +in the fall of 1991, was primarily a software maintenance upgrade required +to support the newly developed and/or enhanced X Window, MS-DOS, and Macintosh +interfaces. Version 6.0, released in the Spring of 1993, added fully integrated +object/rule pattern matching and support features for rule-based software +engineering. Version 6.1, released in the Summer +of 1998, added C++ compatibility and functions for profiling performance.
+ +Because of its portability, extensibility, capabilities, and low-cost, +CLIPS has received widespread acceptance throughout the government, industry, +and academia. The development of CLIPS has helped to improve the ability +to deliver expert system technology throughout the public and private sectors +for a wide range of applications and diverse computing environments. CLIPS +is being used by over 5,000 users throughout the public and private community +including: all NASA sites and branches of the military, numerous federal +bureaus, government contractors, universities, and many private companies.
+ +CLIPS is now maintained as public domain software by the main program +authors who no longer work for NASA.
+ +As with any large project, CLIPS is the result of the efforts of numerous +people. The primary contributors have been: Robert Savely, previous branch +chief of the STB and now chief scientist of advanced software technology +at JSC, who conceived the project and provided overall direction and support; +Chris Culbert, current chief of the Information Technology Office, who managed +the project, wrote the original CLIPS Reference Manual, and designed the +original version of CRSV; Gary Riley, who designed and developed the rule-based +portion of CLIPS, coauthored the CLIPS Reference Manual and CLIPS Architecture +Manual, and developed the Macintosh interface for CLIPS; Brian Donnell, +who designed and developed the CLIPS Object Oriented Language (COOL), coauthored +the CLIPS Reference Manual and CLIPS Architecture Manual, and developed +the previous MS-DOS interfaces for CLIPS; Bebe Ly, who was responsible for +maintenance and enhancements to CRSV and is now responsible for developing +the X Window interface for CLIPS; Chris Ortiz, who developed the Windows +3.1 interface for CLIPS; Dr. Joseph Giarratano of the University of Houston-Clear +Lake, who wrote the CLIPS User's Guide; and Frank Lopez, who designed and +developed CLIPS version 1.0 and wrote the CLIPS 1.0 User's Guide.
+ +Many other individuals contributed to the design, development, review, +and general support of CLIPS, including: Jack Aldridge, Carla Armstrong, +Paul Baffes, Ann Baker, Stephen Baudendistel, Les Berke, Tom Blinn, Marlon +Boarnet, Dan Bochsler, Bob Brown, Barry Cameron, Tim Cleghorn, Major Paul +Condit, Major Steve Cross, Andy Cunningham, Dan Danley, Mark Engelberg, +Kirt Fields, Ken Freeman, Kevin Greiner, Ervin Grice, Sharon Hecht, Patti +Herrick, Mark Hoffman, Grace Hua, Gordon Johnson, Phillip Johnston, Sam +Juliano, Ed Lineberry, Bowen Loftin, Linda Martin, Daniel McCoy, Terry McGregor, +Becky McGuire, Scott Meadows, C. J. Melebeck, Paul Mitchell, Steve Mueller, +Bill Paseman, Cynthia Rathjen, Eric Raymond, Reza Razavipour, Marsha Renals, +Monica Rua, Tim Saito, Gregg Swietek, Eric Taylor, James Villarreal, Lui +Wang, Bob Way, Jim Wescott, Charlie Wheeler, and Wes White.
+ + + +
CLIPS Job OfferingsS&K Electronics is a small technology firm specializing in intelligent +automation and robotics. We are located just outside NASA Johnson Space +Center in the Houston/Clear Lake area. We are looking talented software +engineer to work on two exciting CLIPS-related projects. One project involves +developing a real-time CLIPS component to run under a powerful control application +development tool. The other project involves developing a knowledge capture +tool.
+ +Ideal candidate should have the following qualifications:
+ +For more information, visit our web site at: http://www.sk-tech.com
+ +For immediate consideration, submit your resume to:
+ +Larry C. Li
+S&K Electronics
+1016 Hercules
+Houston, TX 77058
+Tel: (281) 461-3890
+Fax: (281) 461-6203
+E-mail: larryli@ghg.net
My name is Dick Smith and I work for Ajilon, Inc., in our Raleigh-Durham, +NC district office. Ajilon is a world class provider of IT consulting services. +We adhere to the highest ISO9001 standards in all our business practices, +are financially sound and strategically positioned to deliver high quality +solutions through our supplemental staffing and managed services programs.
+ +We are actively seeking several professional resources with strong analytical +ability and technical depth to support a major client project in Research +Triangle Park, NC. You will be part of a team supporting a provisioning +pricing rules application. Position requires BS CIS or equivalent with ability +to understand pricing rules requirements (embedded C). Must have at least +2 years of solid analysis, design and C/UNIX background combined with CLIPS +expertise. Must also have at least 1 year Oracle background with 3 years +minimum overall experience. Any knowledge of LISP would be helpful.
+ +If you're aware of anyone we should be talking with I'd appreciate you +letting me know.
+ +Dick Smith
+Ajilon, Inc.
+1000 Park Forty Plaza, Suite 300
+Durham, NC 27713
+888-296-7575
+dsmith@ral.ajilon.com
+
+
Renaissance is the global provider of integrated business and technology +consulting services. We are looking for talent to take on a project role +as Programmer/Analyst. Looking for 8-10 people with CLIPS experience. Here +is the description:
+ +Qualified individuals should forward Resume (preferably via e-mail in +MS Word 7.0 or text format), Professional References (Managerial) and Salary +History for immediate attention. E-mail your resume to: bhaas@rens.com +Or Contact: Beth Haas, Resource Manager, Renaissance Worldwide, Inc. 1-800-338-9119, +(Fax) 919-678-0704
+ +For more information about Renaissance Worldwide, Inc. and to conduct +your own search for other opportunities in over 100 offices worldwide, visit +our web site at: http://www.rens.com
+ +
+
CLIPS List ServerAn electronic conferencing facility, sponsored by Distributed +Computing Systems, is also available to CLIPS users. Subscribers to +this facility may send questions, observations, answers, editorials, etc., +in the form of electronic mail to the conference. All subscribers will have +a copy of these messages reflected back to them at their respective electronic +mail addresses. To subscribe, send a single line message to clips-request@discomsys.com +containing the word "subscribe". The subject field is ignored +but the address found in the 'Reply:', 'Reply to:', or 'From:' field will +be entered in the distribution list. Upon subscription you will receive +a mail message instructing you how to participate in the conference from +that point forward.
+ +To send your own messages to members of the conference you need simply +address your mail to clips@discomsys.com. +Your message will be reflected to all other members of the conference.
+ +If you wish to remove yourself from the conference and discontinue receiving
+mail simply send a message to clips-request@discomsys.com
+with "unsubscribe" being the text of the message. If you want
+to unsubscribe using another email account than the one you subscribed with,
+then append the original subscribing email account to the text of the message.
+For example: "unsubscribe john.doe@account.net". If you need to
+get in contact contact with the list administrator (for trouble unsubscribing
+or other questions about the list), send email to clips-owner@discomsys.com.
+
Intelligent Software Professionals +has made available the CLIPS-LIST +archive, a WWW-based full text searchable archive containing several +years of question and answers directed to the CLIPS List Server.
+ + + +
+Last Update May 22, 2004 Gary Riley
+
+
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+
+
CLIPS Online Documentation|
+ |
+Last Update March 8, 2008 Gary Riley | +
CLIPS Related Web Locations|
+ |
+Last Update March 27, 2008 Gary Riley | +
CLIPS User Registration
+Please take a few minutes to register CLIPS by sending email to clips@ghg.net. Indicate your company/government/university
+affiliation (if any), what version of CLIPS you are using, the source of
+your copy (COSMIC, CLIPS web site, textbook, etc.), and any other information
+you'd like to provide about your use of CLIPS.
Gary David Riley
+ +Email: gdrwork2006@swbell.net
OBJECTIVE:
+Program design and development of intelligent applications.
Twenty years experience creating software solutions +for complex problems in a variety of hardware and software environments. +Expertise in multiple stages of the product life cycle including design, +implementation, documentation, testing, training, support, and maintenance. +Principle focus has been creating tools for building intelligent applications.
+ +1984 B.S. +Computer Science, Cum Laude, Texas A&M University
+ +
2005-2006 Consultant, +IBM
+ +Developed a CLIPS-based expert system to automatically +process changes to cargo container shipping instructions.
+ +
2002-2004 Senior +Developer/Software Engineer, PeopleSoft
+ +Continued development of the Java-based Calico +configurator including translation and runtime components.
+ +Maintained the PeopleCode interfaces integrating the +configurator with the PeopleSoft Internet Architecture.
+ +
1996-2002 Senior +Software Engineer, Calico Commerce
+ +Developed a C-based product configurator utilizing CLIPS +extended with constraint-based programming features.
+ +Developed a Java-based translator for converting the XML +representation of a configurable product to the runtime format supported by the +Java-based product configurator.
+ +
1994-1997 Consultant, +Atomic Games
+ +Developed C-based path and task planning algorithms for Close +Combat, a Windows/MacOS military simulation +game.
+ +
1988-2004 Author, +Course Technology
+ +Coauthored four editions of the academic textbook Expert +Systems: Principles and Programming.
+ +
1985-1996 Computer +Engineer, NASA/Johnson Space Center
+ +Led code design and development of the system +architecture, rule-based programming features, and Macintosh interface for +CLIPS, a portable C-based expert system tool.
+ +Received broad exposure to a variety of AI technologies.
+ +
Support InformationThe most recent versions of CLIPS executables, documentation, and source +code are available on the SourceForge CLIPS Download Page.
+ +The CLIPS Expert System Group
+is a forum for the discussion of CLIPS related topics.
+
+ 
+ |
| + Subscribe to CLIPSESG + |
| + Visit this group + |
Questions regarding CLIPS can be posted to the SourceForge CLIPS Forums.
+ +The CLIPS Cookbook, recipes for solutions to common tasks and problems relating to CLIPS, is available at the + SourceForge CLIPS Wiki.
+ +Bugs and Feature Requests can be submitted to the SourceForge CLIPS Tracker.
+ +Questions regarding CLIPS can be sent via electronic mail to clipsYYYY@swbell.net +where YYYY is the current year (for example, 2008). Include the words 'CLIPS USER' +in the subject line.
+ + + +|
+ |
+Last Update March 17, 2008 Gary Riley | +
Version 6.1 of CLIPSCLIPS version 6.1 contains the following major enhancements and changes:
+ + Version 6.1 of CLIPSCLIPS version 6.1 is currently available in the CLIPS Download Area. +It contains the following major enhancements and changes:
+ + Version 6.2 of CLIPSCLIPS version 6.2 is currently available in the CLIPS Download Page. +It contains the following major enhancements and changes:
+ +|
+ |
+Last Update January 24, 2008 Gary Riley | +
Version 6.21 of CLIPSCLIPS version 6.21 is currently available in the CLIPS Download Area. +It contains the following fixes and enhancements:
+ + Version 6.23 of CLIPSCLIPS version 6.23 is currently available in the CLIPS Download Area. +It contains the following fixes and enhancements:
+ + +Fact-Set Query Functions - Six new functions similar to the instance + set query functions have been added for determining and performing + actions on sets of facts that satisfy user-defined queries: + any-factp, find-fact, find-all-facts, do-for-fact, do-for-all-facts, and + delayed-do-for-all-facts. The GetNextFactInTemplate function allows iteration + from C over the facts belonging to a specific deftemplate.
+ +Bug Fixes - The following bugs are fixed by the 6.23 release:
+ +Command and Function Changes - The following function + has been enhanced:
+Compiler Support - The following compilers are now supported:
+ + Version 6.24 of CLIPSCLIPS version 6.24 is currently available in the CLIPS Download Area. +It contains the following fixes and enhancements:
+ +Allowed Classes Constraint Attribute - The allowed-classes constraint + attribute allows a slot containing an instance value to be restricted + to the specified list of classes
+ +New Functions and Commands - Several new functions and commands + have been added. They are:
+ +Command and Function Changes - The following function + has been enhanced:
+Behavior Changes - The following changes have been made to behavior:
+Bug Fixes - The following bugs are fixed by the 6.24 release:
+ +Compiler Support - The following compilers are now supported:
+ +CLIPS 6.3 Beta for WindowsA Windows installer for CLIPS 6.3 Beta is available for download on the SourceForge CLIPS Download Page.
CLIPS 6.3 includes the following enhancements:
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Last Update April 7, 2008 Gary Riley |
CLIPS 6.3 Beta for Mac OS XA Mac OS X installer for CLIPS 6.3 Beta is available for download on the SourceForge CLIPS Download Page.
CLIPS 6.3 includes the following enhancements:
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Last Update March 27, 2008 Gary Riley |
What is CLIPS?CLIPS is a productive development and delivery expert +system tool which provides a complete environment for the construction +of rule and/or object based expert systems. Created in 1985, +CLIPS is now widely used throughout the government, industry, and academia. Its key +features are:
+ + What are Expert Systems?One of the results of research in the area of artificial intelligence +has been the development of techniques which allow the modeling of information +at higher levels of abstraction. These techniques are embodied in languages +or tools which allow programs to be built that closely resemble human logic +in their implementation and are therefore easier to develop and maintain. +These programs, which emulate human expertise in well defined problem domains, +are called expert systems. The availability of expert system tools, such +as CLIPS, has greatly reduced the effort and cost involved in developing +an expert system.
+ +Rule-based programming is one of the most commonly used techniques for +developing expert systems. In this programming paradigm, rules are used +to represent heuristics, or "rules of thumb," which specify a +set of actions to be performed for a given situation. A rule is composed +of an if portion and a then portion. The if portion +of a rule is a series of patterns which specify the facts (or data) which +cause the rule to be applicable. The process of matching facts to patterns +is called pattern matching. The expert system tool provides a mechanism, +called the inference engine, which automatically matches facts against patterns +and determines which rules are applicable. The if portion of a rule +can actually be thought of as the whenever portion of a rule since +pattern matching always occurs whenever changes are made to facts. The then +portion of a rule is the set of actions to be executed when the rule is +applicable. The actions of applicable rules are executed when the inference +engine is instructed to begin execution. The inference engine selects a +rule and then the actions of the selected rule are executed (which may affect +the list of applicable rules by adding or removing facts). The inference +engine then selects another rule and executes its actions. This process +continues until no applicable rules remain.
+ + The History of CLIPSThe origins of the C Language Integrated Production System (CLIPS) date +back to 1984 at NASA's +Johnson Space Center. +At this time, the Artificial Intelligence Section had developed over +a dozen prototype expert systems applications using state-of-the-art hardware +and software. However, despite extensive demonstrations of the potential +of expert systems, few of these applications were put into regular use. +This failure to provide expert systems technology within NASA's operational +computing constraints could largely be traced to the use of LISP as the +base language for nearly all expert system software tools at that time. +In particular, three problems hindered the use of LISP based expert system +tools within NASA: the low availability of LISP on a wide variety of conventional +computers, the high cost of state-of-the-art LISP tools and hardware, and +the poor integration of LISP with other languages (making embedded applications +difficult).
+ +The Artificial Intelligence Section felt that the use of a conventional +language, such as C, would eliminate most of these problems, and initially +looked to the expert system tool vendors to provide an expert system tool +written using a conventional language. Although a number of tool vendors +started converting their tools to run in C, the cost of each tool was still +very high, most were restricted to a small variety of computers, and the +projected availability times were discouraging. To meet all of its needs +in a timely and cost effective manner, it became evident that the Artificial +Intelligence Section would have to develop its own C based expert system +tool.
+ +The prototype version of CLIPS was developed in the spring of 1985 in +a little over two months. Particular attention was given to making the tool +compatible with expert systems under development at that time by the Artificial +Intelligence Section. Thus, the syntax of CLIPS was made to very closely +resemble the syntax of a subset of the ART expert system tool developed +by Inference Corporation. Although originally modelled from ART, CLIPS was +developed entirely without assistance from Inference or access to the ART +source code.
+ +The original intent for CLIPS was to gain useful insight and knowledge +about the construction of expert system tools and to lay the groundwork +for the construction of a replacement tool for the commercial tools currently +being used. Version 1.0 demonstrated the feasibility of the project concept. +After additional development, it became apparent that CLIPS would be a low +cost expert system tool ideal for the purposes of training. Another year +of development and internal use went into CLIPS improving its portability, +performance, functionality, and supporting documentation. Version 3.0 of +CLIPS was made available to groups outside of NASA in the summer of 1986.
+ +Further enhancements transformed CLIPS from a training tool into a tool +useful for the development and delivery of expert systems as well. Versions +4.0 and 4.1 of CLIPS, released respectively in the summer and fall of 1987, +featured greatly improved performance, external language integration, and +delivery capabilities. Version 4.2 of CLIPS, released in the summer of 1988, +was a complete rewrite of CLIPS for code modularity. Also included with +this release were an architecture manual providing a detailed description +of the CLIPS software architecture and a utility program for aiding in the +verification and validation of rule-based programs. Version 4.3 of CLIPS, +released in the summer of 1989, added still more functionality.
+ +Originally, the primary representation methodology in CLIPS was a forward +chaining rule language based on the Rete algorithm (hence the Production +System part of the CLIPS acronym). Version 5.0 of CLIPS, released in the +spring of 1991, introduced two new programming paradigms: procedural programming +(as found in languages such as C and Ada;) and object-oriented programming +(as found in languages such as the Common Lisp Object System and Smalltalk). +The object-oriented programming language provided within CLIPS is called +the CLIPS Object-Oriented Language (COOL). Version 5.1 of CLIPS, released +in the fall of 1991, was primarily a software maintenance upgrade required +to support the newly developed and/or enhanced X Window, MS-DOS, and Macintosh +interfaces. Version 6.0, released in the Spring of 1993, added fully integrated +object/rule pattern matching and support features for rule-based software +engineering. Version 6.1 of CLIPS, released in 1998, removed support for +older non-ANSI C Compilers and added support for C++ compilers. Commands to +profile the time spent in constructs and user-defined functions were also added. +Version 6.2, released in the Spring +of 2002, added support for multiple environments into which programs can be +loaded and improved Windows XP and MacOS development interfaces.
+ +CLIPS is now maintained independently from NASA as public domain software.
+ +Because of its portability, extensibility, capabilities, and low-cost, +CLIPS has received widespread acceptance throughout the government, industry, +and academia. The development of CLIPS has helped to improve the ability +to deliver expert system technology throughout the public and private sectors +for a wide range of applications and diverse computing environments.
+ +As with any large project, CLIPS is the result of the efforts of numerous +people. The primary contributors have been: Robert Savely, who conceived +the project and provided overall direction and support; Chris Culbert, +who managed the project and wrote the original CLIPS Reference Manual; +Gary Riley, who designed and developed the rule-based portion of CLIPS, +co-authored the CLIPS Reference Manual, and developed the Macintosh +interface for CLIPS; Brian Dantes, who designed and developed the CLIPS +Object Oriented Language (COOL) and co-authored the CLIPS Reference Manual; +Bebe Ly, who developed the X Window interface for CLIPS; Chris Ortiz, who +developed the original Windows 95 interface for CLIPS; Dr. Joseph Giarratano +of the University of Houston-Clear Lake, who wrote the CLIPS User's Guide; +and Frank Lopez, who designed and developed CLIPS version 1.0 and wrote the +CLIPS 1.0 User's Guide.
+ +Many other individuals contributed to the design, development, review, and general +support of CLIPS, including: Jack Aldridge, Paul Baffes, Ann Baker, Stephen Baudendistel, +Les Berke, Tom Blinn, Marlon Boarnet, Dan Bochsler, Bob Brown, Barry Cameron, +Tim Cleghorn, Carla Colangelo, Major Paul Condit, Major Steve Cross, Andy Cunningham, +Dan Danley, Mark Engelberg, Kirt Fields, Ken Freeman, Kevin Greiner, Ervin Grice, +Sharon Hecht, Patti Herrick, Mark Hoffman, Grace Hua, Gordon Johnson, Phillip Johnston, +Sam Juliano, Ed Lineberry, Bowen Loftin, Linda Martin, Daniel McCoy, Terry McGregor, +Becky McGuire, Scott Meadows, C. J. Melebeck, Paul Mitchell, Steve Mueller, Bill Paseman, +Cynthia Rathjen, Eric Raymond, Reza Razavipour, Marsha Renals, Monica Rua, Tim Saito, +Michael Sullivan, Gregg Swietek, Eric Taylor, James Villarreal, Lui Wang, Bob Way, +Jim Wescott, Charlie Wheeler, and Wes White.
+ + + +|
+ |
+Last Update January 24, 2008 Gary Riley | +
What's New in the CLIPS Web PagesObtaining a Copy of CLIPS
+
+
+ Information Technology Office Help Desk
+
+ NASA/Johnson
+ Space Center
+ Mail Stop PT4
+ Houston, TX 77058
+ Fax: (713) 483-5200
+ EMail: stbprod@fdr.jsc.nasa.gov
+ +
+
+ COSMIC
+ 382 E. Broad St.
+ Athens, GA 30602
+ Phone: (706) 542-3265
+ Fax: (706) 542-4807
+ EMail: service@cosmic.uga.edu
+ +
+
+ Network Cybernetics Corporation
+ 4201 Wingren Rd., Suite 202
+ Irving, TX 75062-2763
+ Phone: (214) 650-2002
+ Fax: (214) 650-1929
+ Email: info@ncc.com
+ +
+
+ Prime Time Freeware
+ 370 Altair Way, Suite 150
+ Sunnyvale, CA 94086 USA
+ Phone: (408) 433-9662
+ Fax: (408)433-0727
+ Email: ptf@cfcl.com
+ +
+
+ The Austin Code Works
+ 11100 Leafwood Lane
+ Austin, Texas 78750-3409
+ Phone: (512) 258-0785
+ Fax: (512) 258-1342
+ EMail: info@acw.com
+ +
+ + Copies of CLIPS purchased through COSMIC can be freely used and + redistributed without restrictions. This is the mechanism through + which companies, such as the Austin Code Works or Network Cybernetics + Corporation, can redistribute CLIPS. The redistribution restrictions, + or lack thereof, also apply to any individual or company that has a + copy of CLIPS that can trace its origins back to a purchase from + COSMIC. For example, if you buy a copy of CLIPS from the Austin Code + Works or you download a copy of CLIPS from an anonymous ftp site that + purchased a copy from COSMIC, you can freely use and redistribute the + copy you obtained.
+ + Users who receive CLIPS from the Information Technology Help Desk + may only use CLIPS in connection with the specific project under which + it was provided and no further use or dissemination can be made without + prior written permission.
+
+
+
Obtaining a Copy of CLIPSCLIPS 6.1 executables, documentation, and +source code are available at http://www.ghgcorp.com/clips/download/. +This is the primary site for obtaining the latest release of CLIPS. Most +of the documentation at this site is stored in Portable Document Format +(PDF) which requires Adobe Acrobat Reader. This program can be downloaded +from http://www.adobe.com/prodindex/acrobat/readstep.html. +Compressed files at the CLIPS web set are stored in several formats: zip +(primarily for PC users), sea.hqx (for MacOS users), and tar.Z (for Unix +users). Utilities for unzipping zip files can be found at http://www.shareware.com/. +Select the appropriate operating system and search for unzip. For sea.hqx +files, select Macintosh and search for stuffit-expander. For Unix users, +the Unix uncompress and tar commands should be used for extracting files +from tar.Z archives.
+ +Copies of CLIPS executables, source code, and documentation obtained +from the CLIPS download site can be freely used and redistributed without +restrictions.
+ +Expert +Systems: Principles and Programming, 3rd Edition, by Giarratano and +Riley (ISBN 0-534-95053-1 from Thomson +Learning) comes with a CD-ROM containing CLIPS 6.05 executables, source +code, and documentation. The first half of the book is theory oriented and +the second half covers rule-based programming using CLIPS.
+ ++ +
The CLIPS 6.0 UNIX, PC, and Macintosh distribution packages are available +by anonymous ftp from the CMU +AI repository at cs.cmu.edu +and can be found in the /afs/cs.cmu.edu/project/ai-repository/ai/areas/expert/systems/clips +directory. Other versions of CLIPS and CLIPS related files are also available +at this ftp site.
+ ++ +
CLIPS version 6.0 is available from The
+Austin Code Works for $50. For more information, contact
+
+The Austin Code Works
+11100 Leafwood Lane
+Austin, Texas 78750-3409
+Phone: (512) 258-0785
+Fax: (512) 258-1342
+EMail: info@acw.com
+ +
CLIPS version 6.0 is available on an ISO-9660 format
+CD-ROM from Prime Time Freeware. It
+comes as part of an AI package based on the CMU
+AI repository and consists of two CD-ROMs bound into a 224-page book.
+Each CD-ROM contains approximately 600 megabytes of gzipped archives (more
+than 5 gigabytes uncompressed and unpacked). It sells for $60 plus applicable
+sales tax and shipping and handling charges. For more information, contact
+
+Prime Time Freeware
+370 Altair Way, Suite 150
+Sunnyvale, CA 94086 USA
+Phone: (408) 433-9662
+Fax: (408)433-0727
+Email: ptf@cfcl.com
+ +
CLIPS version 6.0 is available on the AI CD-ROM Revision 3, an ISO-9660
+format CD-ROM from the Network Cybernetics Corporation. Over 3,000 AI related
+files are included on the CD-ROM. The cost is $89 + $3 (domestic) / $8(foreign)
+shipping. For more information, contact
+
+Network Cybernetics Corporation
+4201 Wingren Rd., Suite 202
+Irving, TX 75062-2763
+Phone: (214) 650-2002
+Fax: (214) 650-1929
+Email: info@ncc.com
+ +
CLIPS version 6.0 with some changes for Debian GNU/Linux is available
+from http://packages.debian.org/clips.
+
+ + + +
|
|
Last Update April 7, 2008 Gary Riley |
+ 
