This volume contains revised and extended versions of the papers presented at the Second International Workshop on Non-Monotonic Reasoning, held in Grassau (FRG), June 13-15, 1988. The workshop brought together researchers with different backgrounds, including non-monotonic logic, logic programming, truth maintenance and philosophy. Their papers contain substantial advances to the logical foundations of non-monotonic reasoning, its computational realization, and its application to the formalization of common sense reasoning. The book presents a snapshot of the state of the art in this research area, and provides in-depth discussions of current problems and approaches.

For nearly two decades, Kenneth Forbus and Johan de Kleer have accumulated a substantial body of knowledge about the principles and practice of creating problem solvers. In some cases they are the inventors of the ideas or techniques described, and in others, participants in their development. Building Problem Solvers communicates this knowledge in a focused, cohesive manner. It is unique among standard artificial intelligence texts in combining science and engineering, theory and craft to describe the construction of AI reasoning systems, and it includes code illustrating the ideas. After working through Building Problem Solvers, readers should have a deep understanding of pattern directed inference systems, constraint languages, and truth maintenance systems. The diligent reader will have worked through several substantial examples, including systems that perform symbolic algebra, natural deduction, resolution, qualitative reasoning, planning, diagnosis, scene analysis, and temporal reasoning.

This supplement to Building Problem Solvers contains the Common Lisp code examples referenced throughout the text. The code is available on disk and can also be downloaded via ftp.