Download JESS Primer - Joint Expert Speciation System

What Next? 3
OTHER FACILITIES
JESS also contains many facilities to assist with our everyday work on computers - too many to
mention all of them here! We have our own English dictionary, spelling-checker, thesaurus
manager and text formatter. We even have programs to code and decode text files for transmission
across electronic networks. JESS is (so to speak) a system for all seasons - a system designed to be
flexible and varied in its applications.
By now you probably think we are the world-record holders for wheel re-invention! Indeed, we
are often so condemned (especially by the computer science fraternity). This is not the place to
defend our policy in detail - perhaps one day, we can discuss it over coffee, or better still over
something stronger! Suffice it to say that by developing a broad spectrum of facilities for
ourselves we have ensured (a) that JESS can be ported readily to different computer systems,
especially to those of the future, (b) that our data can be manipulated efficiently and accessed in the
way we require and (c) that our system was as free as possible from various other conceivable
constraints.
What seems important to us in the present context is that, whilst you familiarise yourself with
JESS, you explore beyond its standard applications looking for others that may also be useful to
you. We trust that, as your experience grows, you will find the system becomes progressively more
powerful.
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Good luck and
‘Bon Voyage’.