Integration of rule-based and procedural code to obtain flexible engineering software

The application of rule-based programming, commonly associated with expert systems, to programming tasks normally associated with procedural software is considered. To illustrate the ideas, a toy finite element package has been developed, consisting of a set of processors which are configured at run time by interpreting a set of rules. A typical rule relates the immediate prerequisites for a particular processor to its output. The algorithm used to interpret the rules and produce a linearised graph listing the order of execution of processors, is described. The potential of the methodology is to achieve a package that can reconfigure itself to meet a user's request. It would avoid redundant computation and be easy to modify. Issues in data management that arise from adoption of the methodology are briefly discussed, including the design of a suitable database.