Elliot Soloway

AIJ Journal 1990 Journal Article

Artificial intelligence and learning environments: Preface

• William J. Clancey
• Elliot Soloway

AAAI Conference 1990 Conference Paper

The Techies Versus the Nontechies: Today’s Two Cultures

• Elliot Soloway

IJCAI Conference 1989 Conference Paper

Simulating Student Programmers

• James C. Spohrer
• Elliot Soloway

A cognitive model of student programmers is presented. The model is based on protocol studies of students writing Pascal programs, and is implemented in a computer simulation program. The claim of this paper is that a computational cognitive model of student program generation fits within a generate-test-and-debug (GTD) problem solving architecture in which impasse/repair knowledge plays a key role. The claim is supported by showing how the model provides a useful descriptive account of the way students write alternative programs.

AAAI Conference 1987 Conference Paper

Assessing the Maintainability of XCON-in-RlME: Coping with the Problems of a VERY Large Rule-Base

• Elliot Soloway

XCON is a rule-based expert system that configures computer systems. Over 7 years, XCON has grown to 6, 200 rules, of which approximately 50% change every year. While the performance of XCON is satisfactory, it is increasingly becoming more difficult to change. With the goal of facilitating maintenance, DEC has developed a new rule-based language, RIME, in which the successor to XCON, XCON-in-RIME, is being written. This paper evaluates the potential for enhanced maintainability of XCON-in-RIME over XCON.

AAAI Conference 1984 Conference Paper

Intention-Based Diagnosis of Programming Errors

• Elliot Soloway

PROUST is a system which identifies the non-syntactic bugs in novices’ programs and provides novices with help as to the misconceptions under which they were laboring that caused the bugs. In this paper we will discuss the methods which PROUST uses to identify and diagnose non-syntactic bugs. Key in this enterprise is PROUST’s ability to cope with the significant variability exhibited by novices’ programs: novice programs are designed and implemented in a variety of different ways, and usually have numerous bugs. We argue that diagnostic techniques that attempt to reason from faulty behavior to bugs are not effective in the face of such variability. Rather, PROUST'S approach is to construct a causal model of the programmer’s intentions and their realization (or non-realization) in the code. This model serves as a framework for bug recognition, and allows PROUST to reason about the consequences of the programmer’s decisions in order to determine where errors were committed and why.