Towards Declarative Programming of Conceptual Models

This article introduces some basic functions and architectural issues, that help to build a tool for programming conceptual models, and that is not specific for a particular problem class or problem solving method. Our work is based on the KADS-method, that had to be modified in some points, to enable declarative programming of inference knowledge as well as domain knowledge. It is shown, how knowledge sources can be described as semantic network modules. Knowledge sources are instantiated from generic descriptions. All resulting semantic networks are part of a modular knowledge base, each module representing the knowledge on its own right level of granularity. Functions are introduced, that define views between semantic networks. They help connecting declarative representation of knowledge sources on the inference layer to parts of the domain layer network. We only contemplate the interconnection of domain and inference layer.