Debugging and tracing expert systems

A description is given of the expert system parsing environment (ESPE), a system for debugging and testing expert systems written in IBM´s expert system development environment (ESDE). ESPE can perform the following operations: count the number of paths between each pair of nodes (parameter-value combinations or rules), split the expert system by focus control block (FCB) and draw the relationships in each section, and perform a sensitivity analysis. The values of any output parameters that might change when a given input parameter changes from one specified value to another are listed. Also input parameters whose value change might cause a given output change are given. ESPE gives the expert system designer some of the software engineering tools used in traditional programming languages.<>