Integrated software environments

A modeling environment that can combine mathematical, artificial intelligence, and many other computer-based methods to explore a problem space is described. A new approach to constructing this kind of modeling environment is used. The environment uses explicit knowledge of its own structure to support the user in selecting and adapting the system components. The knowledge is in the form of wrappings, which are expert interfaces to the programs, tools, and other resources in the environment. This approach is a simple and powerful mechanism for allowing different kinds of resources to work together in an integrated way. The structure of a program is described that implements this approach. The program is used to study both the types of wrapping descriptions and the wrapping processes.<>