Short:	Knowledge Based System Inference Net Builder
Author:	Andrew@basden.demon.co.uk
Uploader:	Andrew@basden.demon.co.uk
Version:	1.083
Type:	dev/misc

ISTAR

Istar is a knowledge based system builder that allows you to construct
inference nets, bayesian nets and semantic nets.  It has a particularly
nice user interface, with a smoothness that only Amiga hardware can give.
So it is useful for decision support, to help you clarify complex ideas.

You build your knowledge base by drawing boxes and arrows, and then
can run the KB direct.  See docs/Intro or docs/index.html (which have
the same content) to get going.  Most  documentation is now in html.

See the following Web pages:

The main inca page is
     http://www.salford.ac.uk/iti/projects/inca/inca.html
     
The main Istar page is
     http://www.basden.demon.co.uk/pgm/Istar
     http://www.salford.ac.uk/its274/istar/istar.html

NEW IN THIS VERSION (See Docs/history.html)

Version 1.083 is a small update to Version 1.08, which had a few bugs
that had crept in.  (See docs/bugs.html).  Plus a couple of nice
things to make it easier to use by KB developers.  For instance, on
the User Question Panel there is a Cons button that shows you all 
the things that this question affects (consequents), and an Att button
so you can alter the question wording immediately.

Version 1.08 was a major update from both version 1.07 and the last major Aminet
version 1.06.  Alongside various internal tidying up and various
improvements in styling, the main addition is the Lista facility
which allows you to make lists (sets) of things in your KB, and to
do database-like searches on it including relational selects and joins
and even multi-joins - as was promised in the docs for version 1.06.
(It is not, however, a full facility yet.)  You now have control over
the visual appearance of boxes and arrows, and also over the easel
palette.  Further, dealing with items and relationships has been made
more flexible so that you can, for instance, add new attributes to
items and item types at any time, and also add them to relationships.
Also, to move towards the ability to pull information from across
the internet, there is an asynchronous version of backward chaining.

PLANS

Next version I hope to have facilities to obtain information
via ARexx and the internet.

ISTAR NEWS

As bugs are discovered, as tips are suggested, and as better 
documentation is written, etc., - things that do not involve 
a new version of Istar - they will be put on Aminet as they arrive,
under the name Istarnews.  So Istarnews should appear in the RECENT
list more frequently than versions of Istar.

COPYRIGHT

Istar, all versions, are copyright (C) Andrew Basden, University
of Salford, Salford, M5 4WT, U.K.  Andrew@basden.demon.co.uk.

The version with this file can be used freely as long as all copies
of it include the name 'Istar' in their file names whereever they
are stored and as long as this file and copyright notice is
kept with the file.

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

Known to work on Amiga 1200, 3000, 4000.  Will just about run in
2Mb machines, but recommend use the IstarPrefs_LowMem as your
preferences file.

Assigns needed (can work without them):
	IstarSys: (has IstarPrefs and, in future, other things)
	KBTools: where KBs are saved etc.
Fonts used (unless specified in IstarPrefs):
	Courier
	Garnet
	Topaz
Libs used:
	iff.library (but can work without it)

It works best if you assign KBTools: to the directory where you keep
your knowledge bases, and IstarSys: to a directory where various system
files are kept.  At present, the only file sought in IstarSys is IstarPrefs.
Otherwise just starts as Sys: root.

FILES INCLUDED:

Istar	Main program.
This Istar.readme and Intro files.
Preferences files.
Documentation.  Most is now html and cross-linked
for easy reference.  docs/Intro is an ascii version of index.html.
Sample knowledge bases.
Installation script.

DISCLAIMER:

Istar is supplied as-is.

Istar is still under development.  Some of its buttons do not work
because they are not attached to anything yet.  Some of its more
exotic data transformations do not yet work.  See bugs.html.

Let me know what you think of it, by mailing me at Istar@basden.demon.co.uk

Andrew Basden.
26.12.97.