Beyond Exploratory Programming: A Methodology and Environment for Conceptual Natural Language Processing

This paper presents an attempt to synthesize a methodology and environment which has features both of traditional software development methodologies and exploratory programming environments. The environment aids the development of conceptual natural language analyzers, a problem area where neither of these approaches alone adequately supports the construction of modifiable and maintainable systems. The paper describes problems with traditional approaches, the new “parallel” development methodology, and its supporting environment, called the PLUMber’s Apprentice.