An Object-Oriented Approach To Tactical Text Generation

A tactical (sentence) text generator designed within an object-oriented paradigm is described. The approach is based on work by Laurence Danlos, and has been extended by message well-formedness checking, message transformational operators (e.g., PASSIVIZE), and linguistic extensions (e.g., negative, interrogative and imperative sentences). The object-oriented approach is shown to provide modularity, making the generator easily extensible, and localization of data and procedures for improved maintainability. The application of this text generator to three Lockheed research projects is also described.