Getting CASPIAN by FTP
Introductory blurb
CASPIAN is a case-based reasoning system capable of dealing with realistic case-based reasoning problems. We have built and delivered Wayland, an industrial application of CBR, using it (although with a rather prettier front end).
CASPIAN is the property of the University of Wales, Aberystwyth. We have made CASPIAN freely available in binary and source form to the community. You may use CASPIAN and pass copies on to your friends, as long as you pass on this read-me file too.
We are distributing CASPIAN as postcard-ware. If you use it and like it, please send us a postcard. We will also be happy to answer questions on how you might use Caspian to meet some particular task.
License conditions
If you choose to use CASPIAN, it is completely at your own risk. Because the program is licensed free of charge, there is no warranty for the program, to the extent permitted by applicable law. Except when otherwise stated in writing the copyright holders and/or other parties provide the program "as is" without warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. The entire risk as to the quality and performance of the program is with you. Should the program prove defective, you assume the cost of all necessary servicing, repair or correction. (Thanks to FSF for this wording).
Where you get Caspian from
The latest version is available by downloading the following zip file and unpacking it. Get casp.zip.
The source is also available, as enough people have requested to be able to play with it. Get Caspian sources.
What you get in Caspian
We have provided two manuals, the program and associated files, plus three example case bases.
The manuals are for CASL (the case language) and for CASPIAN (the run-time system for executing the language). They are provided in Postscript. Acrobat versions of both the CASL manual and the Caspian manual are also available.
The program and example case bases are in one directory. We have only distributed the MSDOS version of CASPIAN, although it is written in fairly portable C and runs on Suns as well. It can be run under Windows by dropping one of the casebases on to CASPIAN.EXE.
The three case bases we provide are CHEF, BRIDGE2 and WAYLAND. All three have only a few cases, and will tend not to produce a match unless you choose your case carefully (after looking at what cases are in the casebase). For CHEF, the CASPIAN manual gives you an example of a case that will produce a match.
Thanks to Alec Holt for providing two further case bases and associated documentation.
The reason why no match is produced in many cases is because CASPIAN insists that all indexes match before applying weight- based matching to a case. If there is no case with matching indexes, CASPIAN will prompt you for a new set of inputs.
This is not a problem with realistic casebases. For example, the real Wayland casebase has around 200 cases that cover all index possibilities, and so it always finds at least one match. Unfortunately, our industrial collaborators were not willing to have their experience distributed on the net.
Good luck, and do get in touch if you have any questions or problems.
Details for postcards or queries
Centre for Intelligent Systems,
Department of Computer Science,
University of Wales,
Aberystwyth,
Ceredigion, SY23 3DB,
Wales, UK
Tel: +44 1970 622444
Fax: +44 1970 622455
Email: cjp@aber.ac.uk