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Programming for Artificial Intelligence: Methods, Tools, and Applications
Programming for Artificial Methods, Tools, and Applications
682 pages, Hardcover
First published February 1, 1991
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November 10, 2016
"The merits of object-oriented programming styles have begun to become more widely appreciated. Eventually, object-oriented programming may evolve into a 'band-wagon' like structured programming was in the 1970s and early 1980s. What is important to stress is that methodology and environment may not be as easily separable as some people have been led to believe. To support this programming metaphor effectively, some kind of interactive code-browser and source-level debugging tools are a necessity rather than a luxury..."
This book is a little dated (first published in 1990), but reading it is a little like reading the story of my life told in advance. Object-oriented programming is every bit the 'band-wagon' he suggested, and I live almost daily in one of the most sophisticated code development environments ever...pretty printing, context sensitive menus, object browsing, code insight, you name it.
But besides for the regular uplift of an object-oriented mindset, there is much to this book. Frames, ATNs, heuristic search and optimization all come to bear as the authors illuminate the tools and techniques, using LISP (especially in the Scheme incarnation), Prolog and Smalltalk as the frameworks of choice. Scheme is by far the major player of the book, and one can hardly come away without a bit of awe at the way a language can be both data, instruction and interface all wrapped in one very "functional" package.
A good read. I plan on reviewing Chapter 3 again soon, as it was the most illuminating for me, covering programming metaphors most beneficial for the then-current state of AI. Covering things like search, knowledge bases, ATNs and the like. These are things I am still somewhat new to, but play into my interest in AI and natural language processing.
As a final note, I've always had this mystical impression of Smalltalk as the awesome "parent" of object-oriented development, but I was underwhelmed by its potential after reading. It receives limited play in the book, and more it is an example of how interface and environment can have a bearing on programming philosophy. I enjoyed the history, but am a little bummed that it didn't live up to expectations, while sort of being the ending note of the book. I guess maybe the idea of object-orienting around messaging still remains novel and impressive for its scope.
This book is a little dated (first published in 1990), but reading it is a little like reading the story of my life told in advance. Object-oriented programming is every bit the 'band-wagon' he suggested, and I live almost daily in one of the most sophisticated code development environments ever...pretty printing, context sensitive menus, object browsing, code insight, you name it.
But besides for the regular uplift of an object-oriented mindset, there is much to this book. Frames, ATNs, heuristic search and optimization all come to bear as the authors illuminate the tools and techniques, using LISP (especially in the Scheme incarnation), Prolog and Smalltalk as the frameworks of choice. Scheme is by far the major player of the book, and one can hardly come away without a bit of awe at the way a language can be both data, instruction and interface all wrapped in one very "functional" package.
A good read. I plan on reviewing Chapter 3 again soon, as it was the most illuminating for me, covering programming metaphors most beneficial for the then-current state of AI. Covering things like search, knowledge bases, ATNs and the like. These are things I am still somewhat new to, but play into my interest in AI and natural language processing.
As a final note, I've always had this mystical impression of Smalltalk as the awesome "parent" of object-oriented development, but I was underwhelmed by its potential after reading. It receives limited play in the book, and more it is an example of how interface and environment can have a bearing on programming philosophy. I enjoyed the history, but am a little bummed that it didn't live up to expectations, while sort of being the ending note of the book. I guess maybe the idea of object-orienting around messaging still remains novel and impressive for its scope.
Displaying 1 of 1 review