Combining many searches in the FAHRENHEIT discovery system

Abstract Modeling scientific discovery requires combining a large variety of searches into one complex system. This causes conceptual difficulty and slows development of discovery systems. This paper discusses a version of the discovery system FAHRENHEIT which uses search templates to represent a number of different searches in a homogeneous way and a search interpreter to run the system. Search interpreter generates search instances and executes them, and takes care of interaction between searches. Practice shows that the clarity of control increases and that the changes to each search are much easier in the implementation that uses search templates and search interpreter.