Term Index Help
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See the Key for Icons in the Browser for an explanation of icons used in this section.
The Term Index is used to display information about a selected constant in the KB, and is divided into two frames. The left-hand frame contains a list of operations that can be performed on the displayed constant, as well as an index of assertion types involving the constant. The right-hand frame contains the actual assertions, and its contents are determined by the term that is selected in the left-hand frame index.
The options available in the Term Index will vary with each constant, as well as with different versions of the CYC® System. If an option below does not appear do not be alarmed.
The constant is displayed at the top of the frame. Clicking on the red diamond
will bring up the Hierarchy Browser display for the constant. Clicking on the "A" icon
will bring up the Alphabetical Search with the constant as the root node.
The various operations that can be performed on the constant are listed underneath the constant name:
- "Filter Mt" is a filtering tool which modifies the Term Index to display only those assertions that are in the specified #$Microtheory. The default setting is "All Mts", meaning that filtering is not selected and that assertions from all microtheories will be displayed. To change microtheories, click on the "Filter Mt" link and select the check boxes adjacent to the desired microtheories.
- "Create Similar" is a tool which creates a new constant similar to the displayed constant, allowing the user to choose which of the assertions concerning the displayed constant to copy over to the new constant.
- "Rename" is a tool which allows the user to change the name of the displayed constant. All assertions concerning the displayed constant will be left intact, displayed with the new name. Certain constants cannot be renamed directly via the KB Browser. For these constants, the "Rename" link will not be active. For details, see the Cyc Rename/Kill Documentation.
- "Kill" removes the displayed constant from the KB, and deletes all assertions which involve it. A confirmation will be requested before the kill is actually executed. Certain constants cannot be killed directly via the KB Browser. For these constants, the "Kill" link will not be active. For details, see the Cyc Rename/Kill Documentation.
- "Force TMS" forces full TMS (Truth-Maintenance) to be performed on every assertion involving the given constant. Performing TMS on an assertion essentially asks the system to reevaluate all of the arguments for that assertion. This is most useful when some of the assertions have deduced sources which depend on some HL (Heuristic Level) supports which no longer hold. Thus, if some assertions on a constant look like they have a stale HL support justifying them, clicking on "Force TMS" will make the stale arguments go away. Since this is a potentially large (and hence time-consuming) computation, a confirmation page will appear when this link is selected.
- "Diagnose" performs low-level diagnostics on the constant. This is only available in certain versions of the CYC® System.
For certain constants, the hotlinks to "Rename" and "Kill" will not be active. These are constants that are mentioned in code, and a special procedure must be followed when renaming or killing them. See Renaming Constants in Code for details. Constants mentioned in code will be labelled "CODE" at the top of the right-hand frame when "Definitional Info" is selected in the index.
Constants mentioned in the documentation also have special procedures governing their renaming and killing. See Renaming Public Constants for details. Constants in the public release will be labelled "PUBLIC" at the top of the right-hand frame when "Definitional Info" is selected in the index.
Clicking on an index category in the Term Index will cause the corresponding set of assertions involving the displayed constant to be displayed in the right-hand frame. For example, clicking on "genls" under the "Arg 1" heading will display all of the supersets of the constant. Clicking on the red diamond
next to a category will bring up the Hierarchy Browser display for the constant using the category as the indexing predicate. Clicking on one of the plus "+" icons will compute all possible assertions (local plus deduced) in that category using the Literal Query tool. Clicking on the category itself will display only local assertions of that type.
The different index categories:
- Documentation: displays documentation and bookkeeping assertions; the most important of these is #$comment.
- Definitional Info: displays basic, definitional information, such as #$isa, #$genls, and #$genlPreds.
- HL Data: displays a Heuristic Level (HL) description of the given constant. This option is only available in certain versions of the CYC® System.
- Lexical Info: displays lexical information, including any #$denotation links and part-of-speech information.
- Applicable Relations: lists those relations which can apply to the displayed constant (via some argument).
- All Assertions: displays a complete listing of all assertions which involve the displayed constant. The total number is listed in parentheses.
- Public Assertions: displays a listing of assertions involving this constant that contain only other public constants. A question mark (?) is given for the number of assertions because the list of assertions is not computed until a request to see them is made. This option is also only available in certain versions of the CYC® System. A question mark followed by the abbreviation "exp." (? exp.) means "potentially expensive"; clicking on links marked thisway requests the generation of a large list which may be computationally expensive to compile.
- IKB Constants: displays a listing of assertions involving this constant that contain only constants which are elements of #$IKBConstant. A question mark (?) is given for the number of assertions because the list of assertions is not computed until a request to see them is made. This option is also only available in certain versions of the CYC® System. A question mark followed by the abbreviation "exp." (? exp.) means "potentially expensive"; clicking on links marked thisway requests the generation of a large list which may be computationally expensive to compile.
- All GAFs: displays all ground atomic formulas (GAFs) involving the displayed constant. The number to be shown is in parentheses; no number means that only one will be shown.
- Arg 1-5: displays all assertions in which the displayed constant is in the 1st argument position, etc. Clicking on a relation sub-header (e.g., isa or genls) displays the subset of assertions in which the selected relation is used. For example, "genls" under "Arg 1" will return rules of the form: (#$genls constant X), i.e. supersets; "genls under "Arg 2" will return rules of the form: (#$genls X constant), i.e. subsets. Clicking on a microtheory sub-header displays the subset of assertions that are true in the selected microtheory.
- Predicate Extent: applies only to relations; displays all assertions in which the displayed constant is in the 0th argument position (e.g., (constant x y)).
- All Rules: displays all complex rules (as opposed to GAFs) involving the displayed constant.
- Antecedent: displays the subset of rules in which the displayed constant appears in the antecedent.
- Consequent: displays the subset of rules in which the displayed constant appears in the consequent.
- Microtheory Contents: only available if the displayed constant is a #$Microtheory; displays all assertions in that microtheory.
- Miscellaneous: displays all other references to the displayed constant that are not covered in the previous categories.
The right-hand frame displays actual assertions in the CYC® KB.
The constant being displayed is listed at the top of the frame. When "Definitional Info" is selected in the index, below the constant additional information will be listed: the unique constant ID number, "PUBLIC" if it's a public constant, "CODE" if the constant is mentioned in SubL code.
Clicking on the colored ball in front of an assertion brings up the assertion display page, where various operations can be performed on the assertion. See the Key for Icons in the Browser for an explanation of the colored balls and other icons.
Unlike in the index in the left-hand frame, clicking on highlighted constant names in the right-hand frame will bring up the KB Browser display for that constant.
Assertions are grouped by the microtheory in which they are asserted. Most assertions are written in standard CycL. However, "Definitional Info" is listed in an easy-to-read frame-slot format like this:
Arg : 1
Mt: BaseKB
isa: Collection
genls: Individual
Since the assertions are in the "Arg 1" section, the constant is in the first argument position for the given relation; under "Arg 2", the second. Thus the above format represents the assertions:
(#$isa constant #$Collection) in #$BaseKB
(#$genls constant #$Individual) in #$BaseKB
(#$genls #$Mammal constant) in #$BaseKB
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