Software structure for data delivery on multiple engines

Abstract

An object-oriented decision structure usable by different diagnostic software engines defines a knowledge base that includes a problem, a symptom of the problem, a solution, and case in which the solution is the solution to the problem. The data structure includes a question object defining a question, a response object defining an answer, a question node object, a solution node object defining the case, a case master object defining the problem, the solution, and the case, and a symptom object defining the symptom and pointing to the case master object and to the solution node object. The question node object points to the solution node object, the question object, and the response object and correlates the question, the response, and the solution node object, and the solution node object points to the case master object. The data structure is thus capable of use by a case based reasoning system software engine to establish the existence of the case, and thus that the solution is the solution to the problem, by identifying the symptom, matching the symptom to the symptom object, following the symptom object to the solution object, and following the solution object to the case master object. The data structure is also capable of use by a tree-based expert system software engine to establish the existence of the case by selecting the question node object, following the question node object to the question object to pose the question, matching a received answer to the response object, following the question node correlation of the question, the answer, and the solution node object to the solution node object, and following the solution node object to the case master object.