-- Messages from file: [SUMEX-AIM]<LENAT>MESSAGE.TXT;1
		 -- Sunday, April 6, 1980 13:59:36 --

Mail from SU-SCORE rcvd at 6-Apr-80 0439-PST
Date:  5 Apr 1980 2238-PST
From: HPP.BRUTLAG at SU-SCORE (Doug Brutlag)
Subject: KNOWLEDGE BASES
To: csd.greiner at SU-SCORE
cc: csd.lenat at SU-SCORE

Russ,
Things are going extremely well for our knowledge base these days.  I have
discovered the beauty of focus and direction in kb making.  By limiting our
kb to a very small set of problems (a little bigger than what Stefik tried
but a lot less ambitious than what Peter and Larry tried) we now have an 
extremely useful knowledge base that actually looks quite large to an
uneducated molecular biologist.  With the help of Peter, who has provided some
of the best editors and datatype handlers that I've seen for molecular type
of information, we have made a useful knowledge base in that it not only allows 
us to store and edit very complex information and rules, but it leats us
process it with powerful sets of production rules that are written practically
in biochemease.  I currently use the KB and our set of rules in everyday use in
the laboratory.  I have also been invited to present a talk on our work in
Heidelberg Germany this month to BIOCHEMISTS!  Maybe I can stir up some 
interest in AI among this group.  Anyway, I still am having some problems in the
data acquisition phase.  I can think organize data and think of production rules
about 10 times faster than I can enter it into the current editors.  My time 
would be better spent if I could enter rules and data in a more free format 
like using a standard text editor.  Eventually we might have a rule parser that
can read a set of rules written in a freer style directly from a text file.

Some day I will come over and give you a demo of what a molecular biologist can
do with a simple frame oriented knowledge editor.

Doug
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