Glossary:

Case

A collection of answers to the questions that a specific structured matcher asks. It may be thought of as a particular scenario.

Child

A simple matcher that is used by another simple matcher in the structured matcher tree.

Expert

A person who has domain knowledge in a subject or field who creates the structured matcher and puts this knowledge into it to make an expert system.

Matching Algorithm

Starting at the first row, it gets an answer for each column in order. If all the answers fit the matching conditions for the row, then return the result for that row. This uses short circuit logic ( ie if any of the columns fail to fit the matching condition it drops to the next row with out checking any further columns ). If no rows are found to match for all columns then neutral is returned for that simple matcher.

Matching Condition

Consist of a value and relationship pair. An answer is compared to the value using the relationship. If the result is true, then the matching condition has been met, or else it has failed.

Parent

A node that calls subsequent nodes for information needed to resolve the current node.

PlugableDataType

An interface used to allow plug in data types into SM. Once a class implements this interface, it can be used as a data type for matching conditions.

Question

Contains a name, type, and body of text ( the question that will be asked when the user uses the system ). Type defines the kind of answers that it expects.

Results

The possible values returned by each simple matcher and ultimately by the structured matcher. They are Strongly Match, Match, Slightly Match, Neutral, Slightly Against, Against, Strongly Against.

Run

Implements the matching algorithm to return a result, starting at the root simple matcher which recursively evaluated it's children simple matchers.

Structured Matcher

A tree of simple matchers.

Simple Matcher

Contains a table, and implements the matching algorithm.

SimpleMatcherController

A class specific controller to handle messages from the simple matcher user interface class. It routes these messages to the domain objects in the system.

Table

It is made up of rows and columns. Each column represents a question, simple matcher, or in the case of the last column the result of the row. to be given if all the previous column's matching condition had been true in the row. Each row allows different matching conditions to be set for the questions

Tree

A simple non-cyclic ( can only reference children nodes ) n-tuple ( allowing multiple children ) tree with simple matchers for it's nodes.

User

A person who uses a structured matcher to apply it's expert knowledge towards solving a problem or answering a question.

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