Priorities for Algernon Development

Critical Tasks

• Fix :FORC-CLASS and :FORC-INSTANCE.
• Use Protege's Listener interface to activate Algernon rules based on changes made by hand in the Protege GUI.
• Add agenda control. At least the ability to set depth-first versus breadth-first modes. Possibly add full-scale agenda control as in the BB1 blackboard system.
• Access KBs by name For example, (:KB :MY-KB ?kb)
• Restrict slot/frame access by KB: (Ensembl:Gene gene1 ?value), (Google:EstimatedtotalResultsCount ?result ?numHits)
• Additional KB functions: (:CLOSE-KB :KB-1), (:IS-OPEN :KB-1)
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• Set Preferences at runtime: (:PREFERENCE :FORWARD-CHAINING :ON), (:SHOW-PREFERENCES :GLOBAL)
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• Use Protege Frame Listeners to implement calculated slot values.
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• Add missing method: Frame.getRelations()

Non-critical tasks

• Add an About Box.
• Add a settings menu so people can adjust settings on the fly.
• Automatically add :ALGERNON-RULE as a system class when the tab starts up.
• Add a rule editor, with context-sensitive help like the PAL editor.
• Load Algernon properties from a property file.
  What is the LAX system that Protege uses? Or should Algernon just use the Java Properties package? Also, it should be able to load a properties file from the Algernon Tab.
• Add a :NEW-KB command to create a KB.
• Support file operations in Algernon.
  Perhaps :FPRINT and :FPRINTLN, along with :OPEN-FILE and :CLOSE-FILE.
• Create a new Algernon language.
  Use ideas from Flex, OQL, LOREL and InfoMaster.
• Copy frames from one KB to another.
  Extend the Algernon syntax to more easily copy a whole frame from one KB to another.

Major projects

• Design a backend for Algernon that can interact with data interact directly with a database.
• Contribute the Google backend to the Protege project.
• Finish implementing a trivially simple KB backend so that Algernon is not totally dependent on Protege.
• Transparently handle relations with arity > 2 in systems (like Protege) that only support binary relations.
  

Documentation

• Write a paper comparing Algernon, Jess, PAL and other similar languages.