A command language interpreter (CLI) translates commands entered by the user into system actions. The shell is a specific type of CLI that was originally designed and used with UNIX operating systems.The author proposes to design and implement a shell-like CLI on top of the VMS operating system. The shell will enhance VMS features by providing an easier to use syntax and by providing features that are not currently available through VMS. These features include piping facilities and the ability to enter and/or reference multiple commands from a single command line. A language reference manual is provided with the J-shell. This manual explains the features and commands of the J-shell.

Expert system techniques are now being incorporated successfully in commercial computer software packages. This thesis introduces the techniques of developing a rule-based expert system in a general-purpose programming language -- C. The topics of this thesis include significance of expert system shells and approaches used, structure of the knowledge base, loading of the knowledge base, manipulation of the probabilities of rule attributes, and implementation of the inference engine. The inference engine uses the information that users supply to find an object that matches. Today C language is one of the most popular programming languages in use and C compilers consistently produce extremely fast and efficient executable programs. Thisthesisdemonstrates that C language is an appropriate computer language for a rule-based expert system. / Department of Computer Science

The purpose of this study is to explore that mathematics provides a convenient formalism for studying classical database management system problems. There are two main parts in this study, devoted respectively to using mathematical theory of relations and using logical theory to study database management systems. In the first part we focus on relational model and relational algebra. The second part deals with the application of mathematical logic to database management systems, where logic may be used both as a inference system and as a representation language. The features and logical mechanisms of Prolog programming language have been studied. A sample logical database model is developed and tested, using the logic programming language Prolog. / Department of Computer Science

Computers are used for diagnostic and training in the neuropsychological rehabilitation. PLANTEST is a program for the IBM-PC that was developed for diagnostic support. It implements a test that gives information about the reduced ability of brain-injured patients to make plans regarding a certain task.The presented thesis describes a knowledge-based system that can be used to develop new test versions for PLANTEST. The program is called SolvePT and it can prove the solubility of test material used in PLANTEST. It can also automatically generate new test material. The program uses an exhaustive forward-chaining, depth-first search and is implemented in Prolog. The datastructures and algorithm of the program as well as space and time requirements are discussed. / Department of Computer Science

This thesis creates an small expert system that is based on Einstein's special relativity. The basic knowledge of special relativity and the bases for building an expert system are described. The concepts of special relativity are put into a knowledge base by changing the formulas into rules and facts. The Prolog language was used to develop the expert system. New information can be input that does not contradict the rules and facts already in the database. The system also uses computer graphics to demonstrate the physical concepts of relativity. By using this expert system, one can teach the basic knowledge of special relativity and solve some problems related to frames of reference moving with high speed. / Department of Computer Science

This thesis developed a new markup language based on eXtensible Markup Language (XML), named as the Unified Programming Markup Language (UPML), which represents an abstraction of programming techniques of popular programming languages, and is used to store the programming semantic information of various programming languages. UPML aims to provide a general software quality analysis platform and as a gateway to translate programs between high-level programming languages. This research created and analyzed the features of UPML and concluded that UPML may have advantages over the traditional and newly appeared methods in software quality analysis and programming language translation. As the proof of concept in building such a software analysis and translation system, this research developed a PHP to UPML transformer. Execution examples showed its correctness of working in the core programming area of popular programming techniques, structure programming (SP) and object-oriented programming (OOP). The PHP implementation can be easily applied to other programming languages that support the same programming techniques. Since UPML is extensible, languages of other programming paradigms beyond the SP and OOP can be easily added. / Related work -- Analysis of programming languages and programming techniques -- Implementation of UPML -- Implementation of a PHP to UPML transformer -- Examples of execution. / Department of Computer Science

This thesis describes the construction, form, purpose and motivation for LogoRhythms, a sound synthesis and computer audition API intended to be used as a tool in the teaching of computer programming, computer science and associated skills. LogoRhythms is built into Berkeley Logo (UCB Logo), a contemporary open source Logo interpretter. In addition to serving as a user manual complete with program description and code examples, this work documents an exercise in experimental archaeology that traces the unfortunate shift in educational computing and personal computing in general from an emphasis of 'computer literacy' to one of 'user-friendly.' Arguments in defense of command-line and text based computing parallel those for computing as a tool for creative expression and are made in three ways: historical analysis, a new user-study and philosophical investigation. Programming is a widely learnable skill and debugging a useful skill transcending a utility limited to computer programs. Digital musical composition provides a perpetually renewable Opportunity for custom software, underscoring that programming is a creative endeavor.

This study was set up to assess the contribution that a computer modelling approach using the language LOGO could make to the quality of mathematics learning in primary school children. Following a constructivist theory of mathematical learning it is argued that many problems children have with their mathematics results from instrumental learning without understanding, rather than relational learning. LOGO was developed, in part, to provide a learning environment for children to investigate mathematical ideas and thus develop their own understanding. Previous research has not provided much evidence that this happens, nor specified what mathematical learning could be expected to take place and what pedagogic approach could bring it about. Other questions relating to the maturity of the children and their aptitude for programming have similarly been neglected. This study was set up to identify the mathematical ideas intrinsic to Turtle Geometry and to explore the conditions under which this learning could best be fostered. The study was carried out in three phases. The first phase considered the constraints of maturity and the need to program on the learning of 9 and 11 year old children. The second phase of the study followed up the programming of the older children, to see what mathematics they were encountering, and what sort of activities encouraged them to think mathematically. Pre and post tests were used to identify the mathematical learning which was taking place. In Phase III a control group was used to identify the particular mathematical learning which could be attributed to LOGO experience, and to assess the transfer of mathematical learning from the LOGO context to novel problem solving. The first two phases revealed considerable mathematical activity intrinsic to Turtle Geometry. The need to learn some simple programming apparently did not present a barrier to mathematical investigation. The test results in the third phase showed that the children had deepened their understanding of angles, variables and general process aspects of mathematics through using LOGO. The performance of the children on the computers was monitored and was found to be revealing of their current mathematical understanding.

Real-time systems are amongst the most safety critical systems involving computer software and the incorrect functioning of this software can cause great damage, up to and including the loss of life. If seems sensible therefore to write real-time software in a way that gives us the best chance of correctly implementing specifications. Because of the high level of functional programming languages, their semantic simplicity and their amenability to formal reasoning and correctness preserving transformation it thus seems natural to use a functional language for this task. This thesis explores the problems of applying functional programming languages to real-time by defining the real-time functional programming language Ruth. The first part of the thesis concerns the identification of the particular problems associated with programming real-time systems. These can broadly be stated as a requirement that a real-time language must be able to express facts about time, a feature we have called time expressibility. The next stage is to provide time expressibility within a purely functional framework. This is accomplished by the use of timestamps on inputs and outputs and by providing a real-time clock as an input to Ruth programs. The final major part of the work is the construction of a formal definition of the semantics of Ruth to serve as a basis for formal reasoning and transformation. The framework within which the formal semantics of a real-time language are defined requires time expressibility in the same way as the real-time language itself. This is accomplished within the framework of domain theory by the use of specialised domains for timestamped objects, called herring-bone domains. These domains could be used as the basis for the definition of the semantics of any real-time language.

A multidisciplinary approach that involves language universals, linguistic discourse analysis and computer information technology are combined to support the descriptive nature of this research dissertation. Utilising comparative methods to determine rudimentary language structures which reflect both the scientific and historic parameters that are embedded in all languages. From a hypothesis to the proof of concept, a multitude of computer applications have been used to test these language models, templates and frameworks. To encapsulate this entire approach, it is best described as "designing then building the theoretical, experimental, and practical projects that form the structural network of the Maori language system". The focus on methods for integrating the language is to investigate shared characteristics between Maori and New Zealand English. This has provided a complete methodology for a bilingual based system. A system with text and speech for language generation and classification. This approach has looked at existing computational linguistic and information processing techniques for the analysis of each language�s phenomena; where data from basic units to higher-order linguistic knowledge has been analysed in terms of their characteristics for similar and/or dissimilar features. The notion that some language units can have similar acoustic sounds, structures or even meanings in other languages is plausible. How these are identified was the key concept to building an integrated language system. This research has permitted further examination into developing a new series of phonological and lexical self organising maps of Maori. Using phoneme and word maps spatially organised around lower to higher order concepts such as �sounds like�. To facilitate the high demands placed on very large data stores, the further development of the speech database management system containing phonological, phonetic, lexical, semantic, and other language frameworks was also developed. This database has helped to examine how effectively Maori has been fully integrated into an existing English framework. The bilingual system will allow full interaction with a computer-based speech architecture. This will contribute to the existing knowledge being constructed by the many different disciplines associated with languages; naturally or artificially derived. Evolving connectionist systems are new tools that are trained in an unsupervised manner to be both adaptable and flexible. This hybrid approach is an improvement on past methods in the development of more effective and efficient ways for solving applied problems for speech data analysis, classification, rule extraction, information retrieval and knowledge acquisition. A preliminary study will apply bilingual data to an �evolving clustering method� algorithm that returns a structure containing acoustic clusters plotted using visualisation techniques. In the true practical sense, the complete bilingual system has had a bi-directional approach. Both languages have undergone similar data analysis, language modelling, data access, text and speech processing, and human-computer network interface interaction.