Re: Storing data and code in a Db with LISP-like interface

Hello Neo,

I'm breaking my own rule and adding a comment.

'mAsterdam' asked a rather complicated question:

> What I will do is ask you to be clearer:
> I will immediately ask: what, specifically, do you want to
> know about relator/relationships? Why do you want to know it?
> Can you give 'real' examples?

Which you shortened to the last part:

>> Can you give 'real' examples?

And then answered with something that looks a little like metaphysics...

> What is real vs unreal? As far as I can tell, everything that exists in
> this universe is real ...

From this 'droid' who is reading this thread, mAsterdam asked a very valid question. In fact, this is not the first time that mAsterdam asked it. You have never answered it AFAIK. I would rephrase the question as such:

You have been stating that it is /important/ that the /ultimate/ language can easily determine the 'relators' and 'relationships' that the developer uses to represent knowledge, and to derive things from those relationships (like the notion that 'like' is opposite of 'hate'). Both mAsterdam took this 'requirement' (which is not common in KR) and showed you how the overly simple prolog program like(john,mary) would have to be written as relationship(john,like,mary) in order to capture the relator. That is because Prolog, as a language, was designed to represent knowledge, and even metaknowledge, but not designed to expose, to the program itself, the internals of how that knowledge is represented.

I find this requirement interesting. You want the software to be able to inspect itself at a level that wasn't required when Prolog was invented. You have stated that it is valuable, and then drawn out long conversations dealing with examples, but have not stated WHY this requirement is valuable. I know that your language can do it. I know that classic Prolog programs, in their most obvious form, cannot.

So, given this explaination, I hope that you will indulge me: Please, if you would be so kind as to indulge us, explain why it is valuable for ALL of the internals of the knowledge representation mechanism to be exposed to the KR program itself.

No code, please.

-- 
--- Nick Malik [Microsoft]
    MCSD, CFPS, Certified Scrummaster
    http://blogs.msdn.com/nickmalik

Disclaimer: Opinions expressed in this forum are my own, and not 
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   I do not answer questions on behalf of my employer.  I'm just a 
programmer helping programmers.
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