PART 1 - INSTALLING PRO/3 V.1

Pro/3 Installation Components

· The Pro/3 executable (pro3.exe) and set of related support and utility files of type various types.

· The standard knowledge files used as meta-data in a Pro/3 knowledge base;

· A small set of documentation files included in this file (the complete set is available on www.ligaya.net/p3; and

· Sample knowledge bases.

Note on Version Numbers

PRO3.EXE: 1.2.3 refers to main version number 1, sub-version number 2 and release number 3. Knowledge Bases include the main version and sub-version number of the Pro3.exe program by which it was created or most recently upgraded. It is customary to use a leading 0 before the sub-version number if this is less than 10. Version 1.01 is usually referred to as 1.1.

As a rule, a change in the release number usually refers to fixes and minor improvements in the Pro/3 functionality, which does not require changes to a knowledge base. A change in the sub-version number may or may not require upgrading an existing knowledge base. Upgrades will normally be carried out automatically by PRO3.EXE. It is always recommended to reload the standard knowledge files in such cases.

Installation

1. Installing Pro/3 for the first time:

a. Download pro3_install.zip (save the file to a convenient directory).

b. Pro/3’s root directory is \pro3. Decide where you want to locate it (e.g. c:\ or c:\Program Files).

c. Unzip pro3_install.zip to this directory. The contents will be placed in \pro3 and sub-directories (\pro3 (and sub-directories) will be created automatically when unzipping),

2. Installing sample knowledge bases:

a. Download the sample knowledge base (e.g. mc.zip) (save the file to a convenient directory).

b. Decide where you want to locate it. It is recommended to create a root directory for your knowledge bases (e.g. c:\pro3kbs). Create a separate sub-directory for each knowledge base (e.g. c:\pro3kbs\mc).

c. Unzip to your chosen directory (e.g. c:\pro3kbs\mc).

3. Running pro3.exe for the first time

a. Run/click pro3.exe. You will be prompted to accept the licensing agreement the (first run only - same as shown in the www.ligaya.net/p3 download page).

b. You will be prompted for the Pro/3 root directory path. (Answer according to 1b over (e.g. c:\pro3).

c. Pro/3’s usage guide system will start displaying explanatory pop-up windows. It is a good idea to read these until you are familiar with the system (i.e. do not turn off the usage guide).

d. You will be prompted to open a knowledge base. Knowledge bases are stored in a single file with type .3kb. If you have installed one of the sample knowledge bases, then open one of these (e.g. mc.3kb). If you have not installed sample knowledge bases, then just a pick an appropriate directory and enter a name for a new one (e.g. test.3kb).

e. Study pro3exe.html in the pro3\doc directory. This page contains important information regarding the practical aspects of using pro3.exe. Complete documentation are available on www.ligaya.net/p3.

4. Installing a new version or release of Pro/3: Simply download the new version of the pro3_install.zip and unzip the contents to the Pro/3 root directory. Check which of the files in the zip-file you have to re-install at www.ligaya.net/p3/upgrade.html (only pro3.exe in case of new release).

PART 2 - ISSUES, LIMITATIONS, ERRORS AND MISSING FUNCTIONALITY

GENERAL SIZE LIMITATIONS

The following limitations should not give problems in any but very special models:

- KB files (incl. paths) can be up to max. 64 characters long.

- There can be up to a max. of 999,999 records in an enumerated realm (no particular limit for non-enumerated realms).

- Some reports cannot handle more than 9,999,999 sentences.

- Max. 999 tables in one solution set, i.e. avoid more than 999 sentence types in a sentence groups.

- Max. 98 sentence conditions in a sentence rule.

- Max. 9999 sentence types can be handled by the Sentence Derivation-window.

- Max 9,999,999 sentences in one sentence type.

- Max length of sentence type NL name is 221.

- Max. 99 sentence types possible in sentence groups referred to in sentence group rules.

- Max. 9 sentences/rules possible in realms with sentence group rules (i.e. a sentence group rule cannot have sentence no > 9)

The following limitation can commonly be encountered:

· Sorting key lengths (= sum of the defined width of the participating data element types) cannot exceed 255.

GENERAL INPUT/OUTPUT

LIMITATIONS:

· Knowledge files exceeding a certain size cannot be loaded via the text editor with the Process Window-command (causes stack overflow). Work-around: Use Process File-command instead.

· The tab-key does not work in most windows. Work-around: Use the mouse to change focus.

· The information in the execution trace file is not documented (and the content is thus difficult to interpret).

· Set-rule type sentence rules cannot be entered in NL_format. Work-around: Enter sentence rules by using the rule editor.

· Data element reference-type expressions in sentence types where the same data element type occurs more than once, can only reference the first occurrence of the data element type (since there is no construct to qualify the data element type).

ISSUES:

· Avoid as much as possible the internal date and internal time domains. Work-around: Use XML_DATE, XML_TIME and XML_DATETIME domains instead.

MISSING VALIDATIONS:

· KE realms cannot start with '$'. Work-around: There are no reasons to use such realm names!

- ith a lower case letter, which is a requirement.

INEXACT RULES

LIMITATIONS:

· Data rule queries cannot, directly or indirectly, involve the evaluation of an inexact rule network.

PUBLICATIONS AND SUBSCRIPTIONS - KB CLUSTERING

LIMITATION:

· This functionality is new and not thoroughly tested.

QUERIES

LIMITATION:

· The data element reference query can only be used to query the first occurrence of a data element type in a sentence (i.e. in sentence types where the same data element type occurs twice or thrice).

RULE EDITOR

LIMITATIONS:

· When automatically repairing/adjusting an existing (suspended) rule because of changes in the underlying sentence model, then in cases where data element types have been added to an entity type or predicate type, the editor is only able to add one new data element type at a time. If say you have added three data element types, then you will have to open the rule thrice to have it automatically repaired.

SENTENCE RULES AND FUNCTIONS

LIMITATIONS:

· Identifiers cannot be used as value for literal-domain DEs in rules.

MISSING VALIDATIONS:

· Data element types inside a NOT-branch in a sentence rule cannot be referenced outside the NOT-branch. However, when NOT is inserted at the root of a branch, then Pro/3 fails to remove eventual existing references, while the data elements also erroneously are available in the data element list-box.

ISSUES:

· Note that data elements used as parameters in “calls” to statistical rules, will be summed up for each (equality)-set during processing of the rule. This can cause arithmetical overflow for integer data elements, especially if the (equality-)sets are large. Work-around: If this situation could occur, then consider defining the data elements as numbers instead of integers.

SYNTAX

LIMITATIONS:

- There is no NL-concept (recognizable syntax) for sentence rules other than simple implication rules. Work-around: Use the rule editor (and/or XML) for sentence rules.

- NL syntax: X=-Y and X=(-Y) is not recognized. Work-around: Use X=(0-Y).

- Pro/3 does not validate that sentence model NL-names start w

TERMINOLOGY

LIMITATIONS:

· The 'unreferenced' report does not handle unreferenced KB names.

MISSING VALIDATIONS:

· All sentence model object NL-names must start with a lower case letter.

TREE DRAWING

LIMITATIONS:

· Trees can only be printed left-to-right (root to the left).