A KNOWLEDGE BASED SIMULATION DESIGN, DEVELOPMENT & CODING ENVIRONMENT

THE INNOVATIVE CONCEPT PROPOSED HEREIN INVOLVES THE DEVELOPMENT OF A KNOWLEDGE BASED SIMULATION DESIGN, DEVELOPMENT AND CODING ENVIRONMENT. THIS SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT ENVIRONMENT WOULD PROVIDE A COMMON USER INTERFACE, KNOWLEDGE BASE AND DATA BASE ACROSS ALL COMPUTERSUSED AT NASA DRYDEN TO DEVELOP AND CODE SIMULATIONS. THE ENVIRONMENT WOULD ENCOURAGE THE DEVELOPMENT OF CODE WHICH WAS PORTABLE AMONGST MACHINES. THIS WOULD BE ACCOMPLISHED BY ENCOURAGING THE USER TO SELECT ROUTINES AND/OR ROUTINE FORMATS FROM A DATA BASE, BY EMPLOYING AUTOMATED CODE GENERATION AND CODE CONVERSION PROGRAMS, BY MAKING READILY AVAILABLE ON THE SYSTEM DOCUMENTATION ON POOR CODING PRACTICES WHICH INHIBIT PORTABILITY, AND ON GOOD CODING PRACTICES WHICH PROMOTE PORTABILITY. THE ENVIRONMENT WOULD ALLOW THE USER TO BUILD A SIMULATION BY RESPONDING TO PROMPTS FROM THE SYSTEM. THE USER WOULD BE ALLOWED TO ACCESS CODE, SUBROUTINES OR COMPLETE PROGRAMS FROM OTHER SIMULATIONS AS REQUIRED. THE INNOVATION WOULD SIGNIFICANTLY REDUCE THE COST OF DEVELOPING SIMULATIONS AND OF REHOSTING THEM IN OTHER COMPUTERS.