REL--An Information System for a Dynamic Environment.

Three outstanding features of the Rapidly Extensible Language (REL) System are discussed. REL itself is an integrated software system designed to facilitate conversational interaction with the computer, especially by those working with dynamic, highly interrelated data. The system's main parts are: 1) the operating system, which manages the simultaneous use of the system from a number of terminals and handles all input/output from peripheral storage; 2) the language processor, which analyzes the incoming query or data and schedules and executes the appropriate calculations and processing of the data base; and 3) the REL languages and user language/data base packages. The characteristics of the system treated in detail in this paper include: 1) its ability to handle interrelated and time-oriented data; 2) its provision for communication with data in natural language trailored to the user's needs, with emphasis upon ordinary English; and 3) its extensional facility, which allows for the modification of data through definitions of new terms and relationships as part of the user's ongoing work with the system. (Author/LB)