[PLUG] Programming in Common Lisp

Rich Shepard rshepard at appl-ecosys.com
Thu Feb 13 08:21:01 UTC 2003


On 13 Feb 2003, Bill Spears wrote:

> Right, clips is expert systems. No, what I meant is called a fuzzy system:
> the sendai train system, somebody's kiln, a model helicopter controller,
> etc.  I had a simple prototype running in Python about 5 years ago, but,
> ironically, my recent crash took my last remaining Windows partition with
> it, and the Python code with it.

Bill,

  Most of the work dune with fuzzy logic and models has been with
controllers. Your autofocus camera and image-stabilized videocam are other
examples.

  There are _very_ few folks who have been applying fuzzy logic to business
problems. One's been making his living at it -- as an independent consultant
-- since 1972. There's one other of whom I'm aware who's been trained by
this one fellow, and this other one is in Minnesota.

  There are quite a few companies applying neural nets and genetic
algorithms to many of the same problems (e.g. insurance ratings, fraud
detection) but there are problem classes that can be addressed by one and
not the others.

  I'm learning the nuts and bolts of fuzzy system modeling which includes GA
and neural net components in some models. I _can_ do it all in C (or C++ or
python or prolog or lisp or scheme or java or ...). The language really
doesn't matter. For the use I want to make of these models I'm considering
if learning and using CNU/Lisp (an implementation of Common Lisp) might make
model development much quicker than using C. Each project and situation
where this would be the most rational and pragmatic approach is different.
Therefore, each project/situation needs to have a new model built from
scratch. The fuzzy manipulation functions remain the same, and the UI will
probably be constant, but the derivation of fuzzy rules and the way the
model is structured will vary each time. That's where prototyping and
development speed can make a difference in time to a working model and cost
to my client.

Thanks,

Rich

Dr. Richard B. Shepard, President

                       Applied Ecosystem Services, Inc. (TM)
            2404 SW 22nd Street | Troutdale, OR 97060-1247 | U.S.A.
 + 1 503-667-4517 (voice) | + 1 503-667-8863 (fax) | rshepard at appl-ecosys.com
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