Classification Framework Proposal

$Revision: 1.2 $
Changes: available in CVS

Motivation

The goal of this proposal is to design a framework which allows to declaratively specify classes (categories) of objects in the IDE, based on various user-defined criteria. The framework is intended to replace many current usages of the MIMEResolver API, and to be used in conjunction with the Filesystem Extension API and the Looks API.

Abstract

We design a generic declarative framework for classification of objects in imperative languages, which allows for arbitrary extensions through callbacks to procedural code. Our work is inspired by some more general tools for knowledge representation, such as prioritized extended datalog programs. We also outline an efficient and scalable algorithm for evaluating our programs, which is more efficient than evaluation procedures for the more general cases.

Document

Download the proposal in pdf format here:

An extensible declarative classification framework and its efficient implementation (Draft)
Last updated: April 30, 2003

Implementation

A preliminary prototype of the implementation can be downloaded here.

You may also want to read a document containing instructions for building and trying out the framework, and the current status.
Last updated: June 24, 2003