A FUNCTIONAL-APPROACH TO INTEGRATING DATABASE AND EXPERT SYSTEMS

A new system architecture is described that shares certain characteristics with database systems, expert systems, functional programming languages, and spreadsheet systems, but is very different from any of these. It is based on a uniform use of side-effect-free functions that represent facts and knowledge in a nonprocedural programming system. Database objects are represented by arbitrary extensional functions, i.e., tables, while domain knowledge is represented by side-effect-free intensional functions composed from a suitable library. Both default and inexact information are accommodated by treating values of database objects as random variables with associated probability distributions. The uniformity that results from functional representations leads to a corresponding uniformity in database and knowledge-base operations.