BKFUZHBK.RVW 940616 Academic Press, Inc. 955 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02139 Josh Mills, Marketing, jmills@acad.com publisher@igc.org "The Fuzzy Systems Handbook", Cox, 1994, 0-12-194270-8 We dinosaurs of procedural programming language orientation tend to have problems with functional programming languages such as Prolog. It is difficult to reorganize your thinking into the existential model of the expert systems programmer. We have similar problems with object oriented programming. The difficulties we have with fuzzy logic are probably for the same reason. Take heart, fellow dinosaurs. At the very least, this book explains *why* we find fuzzy systems so troublesome. They are simply expert systems with a better conceptual grasp of probabilities. The trade media has hyped fuzzy systems as the new and coming thing. Information systems professionals, who have lived through a great number of "coming things" still know little more, basically, than the fact that control systems are supposed to be better with fuzzy logic, and that close now counts in both horseshoes and fuzzy systems. The reason for the confidence in this science of imprecision can, in part, be demonstrated in the control realm. Suppose you are building an automatic collision avoidance system for cars. It is fairly straightforward to program in the sequence of actions to be taken to slow the car as it approaches another object. If, however, the system fails, then what happens if you do hit the object? Will the "distance" become a negative number? If so, will the brakes bind or release? Will the drive train stop, accelerate, or go into reverse? This situation is simplistic, but the outcome, in a procedural language, must be accounted for, prepared and tested. Fuzzy systems deal with ranges, and it is much easier to see and understand that the concept of "close" should also include "hit" -- even before you start to build the actions to be taken. The potential disasters associated with systems that would flip planes upside down when they flew over the equator are not confined to control systems, as IS professionals are all too well aware. Financial disasters can be precipitated by "decision support" software which can generate market crashes. Similar damage can be done on a smaller scale by specialized programs which may have undiscovered, and unintended, assumptions. As with control systems, working with ranges may make the pitfalls more obvious than working with static and sterile values. Even so, it is difficult for the programmer to translate the concepts of fuzzy logic into code to play with. Cox has, therefore, given you code to play with. A high density MS-DOS format floppy contains C++ source code to mess around with. (C programmers should be able to work with most of it, and, since it is source code, Mac devotees should be able to use it, as well.) For those wishing to explore this new field "hands-on", a slightly high-toned, but very useful, introduction. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1994 BKFUZHBK.RVW 940616 ====================== DECUS Canada Communications, Desktop, Education and Security group newsletters Editor and/or reviewer ROBERTS@decus.ca, RSlade@sfu.ca, Rob Slade at 1:153/733 Author "Robert Slade's Guide to Computer Viruses" (Oct. '94) Springer-Verlag