THIS PROPOSAL ADDRESSES THE DEVELOPMENT OF A PORTABLE AND EXTENDED VERSION OF THE MODELING LABORATORY (MLAB).

THIS PROPOSAL ADDRESSES THE DEVELOPMENT OF A PORTABLE AND EXTENDED VERSION OF THE MODELING LABORATORY (MLAB). THE IMMEDIATE PROBLEM IS THAT MLAB, A POWERFUL MATHEMATICAL MODELING TOOL, IS CONFIGURED FOR THE DEC 10/20S AND IS WRITTEN IN A SOURCE LANGUAGE STANFORD ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE LANGUAGE (SAIL) WHICH IS NOT COMMONLY AVAILABLE AND FOR WHICH THERE ARE FEW PROFICIENT PROGRAMMERS. THIS LIMITS ITS USE IN OTHER OPERATING SYSTEM ENVIRONMENTS, OR ITS BEING IMPROVED WITH STATE-OF-THE-ART CAPABILITIES. ALSO, THE NONPROCEDURAL ASPECTS OF MLAB MAKE IT RATHER SLOW IN A TIME-SHARING ENVIRONMENT, ANOTHER DRAWBACK TO ITS WIDESPREAD USE. THERE ARE THREE GOALS TO THIS EFFORT. THE FIRST WILL BE TO DEVELOP A MORE PORTABLE VERSION OF MLAB. SECOND, WE WILL INCREASE THE SPEED OF PROCESSING AND THE FLEXIBILITY OF MLAB. THIRD, WE WILL DEVELOP A GENERAL SET OF CRITERIA FOR OTHER SUCH MODELING PACKAGE CONVERSIONS.