Month Year Issue

May 2004 Issue: 32

Journal of Conceptual Modeling
www.inconcept.com/jcm

Editors Corner
By Patrick Hallock

As our readers know we are interested in structured language approaches to data design, business rules, software construction and applications that are language driven. The idea that a database can be developed from structure language has been true since the mid 1970s. The early years included some business rules, but not to the extent of current projects. Today several groups are submitting papers to the OMG to create a vastly extended set of business rules which are expressed in the structured language of the business. I hope that next step would include the same language approach for the construction of applications themselves. It is currently possible to use many applications via voice only. It seems that most of these are in the field of phone support or transactions. I would like to see a future that is multi-modal. This means the ability to mix mouse, keyboard, touch screen and voice to develop and use of applications. Personally, I would prefer a touch screen with voice as my preferred modes of interaction in both the development of and in the use of applications. When I say using voice in applications, this also means using voice in tools used to create applications.

My hands and wrists are not suitably designed for this constant keyboarding and mouse movement. I am taking a class in speech development in order to make this experience more fruitful. This is actually fun! I selected Dragon Naturally Speaking for my first adventure. The professional edition includes the SKD for developing applications using the Dragon engine. Even if I do not use the SDK, I can create voice commands in most applications. This includes, using a set of sequential keystrokes or, VBA code which can be very complex. There is also xmlVoice which is embeds voice commands in xml syntax. I choose Dragon Systems since it had a large vocabulary and creates voice files for each user. Using my voice file for each session helps to refine how I speak words and improves my voice recognition with each session.

So why this little side trip? I would like to encourage authors to submit articles about these approaches for the development and using of applications and data systems. Currently, I know of Haley Authority and LEAP SE, Object Role Modeling, Natural Language Modeling and the Business Rules Group. Haley and LEAP SE are business rules tools that are currently on the market and use natural language as the approach for forming the rules. Object Role Modeling and Natural Language Modeling can be adapted in today's implementations by using a voice interface. These tools are not specifically designed for the voice, but they do work to some degree. Authorete by Haley wrote the application with the voice interface in mind.

I can see this opens a "can of worms". I do not wish to publish vendor propaganda, this is the marketing materials about such tools. We are interested in papers that define and share the approach. Such an article in this edition by Brian Smith of LEAP SE.

On another note: visit John Sharp at www.sharp-informatics.com to see about his Natural Language Modeling classes.

For those that know me personally, I which to thank you for your personal support over the past two years. Life would have been very lonely without your concern and support. Thanks a whole bunch! Things worked out in the long run.