Date: Mon, 13 Nov 2000 21:45:22 -0600 From: "Michael C . Wu" <keichii@iteration.net> To: opentrax@email.com Cc: doc@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Wizard, Experts and Guru Systems (Was Re: Any comments?) Message-ID: <20001113214522.B38561@peorth.iteration.net> In-Reply-To: <200011131734.JAA05859@spammie.svbug.com>; from opentrax@email.com on Mon, Nov 13, 2000 at 09:34:28AM -0800 References: <7939.972943916@winston.osd.bsdi.com> <200011131734.JAA05859@spammie.svbug.com>
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I removed the CC's because this thread is not very useful to
either jkh or -bugs.
On Mon, Nov 13, 2000 at 09:34:28AM -0800, opentrax@email.com scribbled:
| On 30 Oct, Jordan Hubbard wrote:
| >> More modern technical support systems usually use a "wizard" that
| >> walks you through the troubleshooting process. Half our problem is
| >> helping the user define the problem, after all.
| > Damn, and there I was reading along and thinking "Yes! He's about to
| > suggest and volunteer to create an expert system using some inference
| > language like CLIPS or PROLOG! Our hero!" and then I saw "Web-based".
| > Still, even a web page-based interface using static content would be
| > an improvement. :-)
| >
| I've had this in my inbox for about 2 weeks, trying to make time
| for this. A recent PR (doc/22042) has prompted me to get on with this.
That PR is not a FreeBSD problem and has been closed without action.
| All get misused, by the reporter, the reviewer or
| the maintainer.
Or some newbie users who submit useless PR's that only add
work to the committers without learning how UNIX behaves.
| To this end, the first question we must ask is:
| What is the purpose of this?
To have a PR database.
| So, how does this all fit together?
| Let's consider the first most obvious reason
| we all does this. We like working with other people at
| least as smart as we are. Sometimes we are even annoyed and
| offended when "not smart" people enter the fray.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Right.
| Certainly, we could have a web-based system that does something.
| Perhaps a static tree (as suggested) might be an approach.
| However, such systems don't fair well durning change.
And are you going to maintain it?
| If we consider this system for, let's say, setting up
| a video monitor to handle X-Windows configuration.
| This system would run into multitudes of problems.
| In the end, this system might not fair better than
| a printed book. Useful, but limited.
|
| On the other hand, a dynamic system such as one
| that uses a Database or so-called expert system,
| such as Prolog, needs an expert to handle the expert
Prolog is not an expert system. Prolog is a programming language.
An expert system is not easy to write.
| One system that might fair better is one centered around
| a knowledge-base system. The easiest analogy is
| to consider AltaVista, Google or AskJeeves.
The easiest analogy is www.google.com/bsd
| Knowledge tends to cluster in many forms.
| Obvious examples are newsgroup and mailing lists.
| However, their biggest problem is Signal-to-Noise.
Right, and you, sir, compose extremely long emails
that does not really contribute very much.
| If, on the other hand, we examine this closely, we can
| see that they are clustered via keywords or hashs.
| Things like this might suggest using Grep, Awk or Lex,
| but they are too general in purpose and at
| best can only be tools to solutions.
Write the tool and I will bow to you.
| It doesn't matter.
Correct.
| standard naming conventions. Those standard-names
| get passed along when people write in both
| newsgroups and mailing lists.
It is called a PCI ID.
|
| Again, the language leads us to the solution.
| In this case, we have some order that we
| can really use to our advantage.
| For instance, FreeBSD has most PRs start at gnats.
| After that there is a series of ACKs and NACKs.
Nothing wrong with that.
| The key now is to find/track the resolution
| as it fits within the context of the person
| asking the question. Again, the knowledge is embedded
| in the language, not the actual words themselves.
If you can write an expert system that well,
you will be on the cover of the ACM journal next month.
(Point is, no one is able to, and no one has done it.)
| This might seem a bit confusing, unless we consider
| that each message is both part of the question
| and part of the answer. That is, in most situations
| a question can be turned directly into an answer.
|
| Here is an example:
|
| What color is the wall?
| The color of the wall is black.
|
|
| True many emails babble (like this one), but
| they do pertain important information. Perhaps,
These kinds of email contain important information?
I have seen your numerous PR's and and numerous posts. My suggestion
is that you should try buying a few books on UNIX basics or find
a source of information. (An example would be using www.google.com
to search for answers to your problems first.)
--
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| keichii@peorth.iteration.net | keichii@bsdconspiracy.net |
| http://peorth.iteration.net/~keichii | Yes, BSD is a conspiracy. |
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