Computer-based diagnostic systems are among the most successful applications of knowledge-based systems (KBS) technology. Chris Price shows the best way to build effective diagnostic systems for different types of diagnostic problems by: - giving examples of different solutions to the problem of building effective diagnostic systems - helping you to decide on an appropriate strategy for building a diagnostic system to aid troubleshooting of that diagnostic problem - showing how to use diagnostic fault trees as a common representation for discussing different ways of approaching diagnosis....

Java is such a rapidly evolving language, it can be difficult for developers to keep abreast of developments. It has moved beyond a lnaguage used just for creating Web-based applets to one that is being used for developing serious applications. Key Java is intended for those who already know the Java language, the classes and the tools, but who want to get more out of Java. They are wanting to know about subjects such as good Java style for reusable components, about using Java beans, about the JDBC, about optimising their code, about testing their code appropriately and about using the IFC,...

Robustness analysis addresses the question "Is a control system sufficiently stable under all admissible operating condtions?"

Robust Control (second edition) presents parametric methods and tools for control design catering for several representative operating conditions and design specifications simultaneously, thus reducing the performance effects of parameter uncertainty in both time and frequency domains. The author s graphical parameter space methods guarantee the desired properties for all possible values of plant uncertainty. These methods also help the reader to...

Conceptual Modeling for User Interface Development introduces the technique of Entity-Relationship-Modeling and shows how the technique can be applied to interface issues. It explains those aspects of entity-relationship modeling which are relevant to ERMIAs, and it presents the extensions to the notation that are necessary for modeling interfaces. This book is aimed at both interface designers and software developers in an attempt to bridge the gap in the development of interactive systems. Too often, when software is being developed, the software engineers do not sufficiently...

Why This Book, Why Now? It is now widely recognized that in the development of IT systems, the technology driven focus of the past has been eclipsed by a concern for user satisfaction and user productivity. It is well known that usability engineering helps make systems easier to use and more relevant to business needs. The benefits of producing usable computer systems have been proven in careful dollar or pound calculations and any computer user who has interacted with a system designed for usability will enthuse about the benefits and refuse to go back to the bad old days. More and more...

Client/server and distributed technologies have made great strides since their emergence in the late 1980s to become very popular in the IT industry today. This book illustrates techniques not only for designing GUI client/server applications, but also for managing complex application environments containing both legacy and new applications.
Topics covered in this book include
- The what, when and how of the three tier client/server model
- Coupling and dependency: key design factors in distributed systems
- Distributed application design alternatives for the enterprise
-...

Purpose The purpose of this book is to explain to information technology (IT) decision makers those aspects of finance that most affect their work. Most IT decision makers belong in one of two categories. Some know a lot about IT, but less about finance; the others know a lot about finance, but less about IT. In my experience, those in the first category often have to make financial decisions. Those in the second also, of course, have to make financial decisions, but about things whose characteristics stretch the normal financial and accounting rules up to, and sometimes beyond, their elastic...