GBB Reference Manual (V1.1 -- Draft Manual)

THIS MANUAL DESCRIBES VERSION 1.1 OF THE GENERIC BLACKBOARD SYSTEM (GBB), A HIGH-LEVEL IMPLEMENTATION TOOL DESIGNED TO PROVIDE AN APPLICATION BUILDER BOTH SPEED AND FLEXIBILITY IN IMPLEMENTING A BLACKBOARD-BASED APPLICATION AS WELL AS EFFICIENT EXECUTION OF THE RESULTING APPLICATION. GBB VIEWS THE BLACKBOARD AS A HIGHLY STRUCTURED, N-DIMENSIONAL VOLUME, WITH BLACKBOARD OBJECTS OCCUPYING SOME EXTENT WITHIN THE BLACKBOARD. EFFICIENT INSERTION/RETRIEVAL OF BLACKBOARD OBJECTS IS ACHIEVED USING A LANGUAGE SPECIFYING THE DETAILED STRUCTURE OF THE BLACKBOARD AND HOW THAT STRUCTURE IS TO BE IMPLEMENTED. THESE SPECIFICATIONS ARE USED TO GENERATE A HIGHLY- TUNED BLACKBOARD DATABASE KERNEL TAILORED TO THE APPLICATION. GBB CONTAINS TWO DISTINCT SUBSYSTEMS: A HIGH-LEVEL BLACKBOARD DATABASE COMPILER AND A SET OF GENERIC CONTROL SHELLS. THIS MODULARIZATION ALLOWS APPLICATION-INDEPENDENT IMPLEMENTATION OF CONTROL STRATEGIES, AS WELL AS ALLOWING CHANGES TO THE BLACKBOARD DATABASE WITHOUT AFFECTING THE CONTROL SHELL AND VICE-VERSA. AN APPLICATION IMPLEMENTER CAN SELECT AN APPROPRIATE CONTROL SHELL AND USE IT TO PROTOTYPE THE SYSTEM. AS EXPERIENCE WITH THE APPLICATION IS GAINED, THE GENERIC SHELL IS TAILORED BY ADDING REFINED, APPLICATION-SPECIFIC KNOWLEDGE TO THE SHELL''S DECISIONMAKING MACHINERY.