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Adding deductive logic to a COTS spreadsheet

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 September 2007

MARCELO TALLIS ,
RAND WALTZMAN  and
ROBERT BLAZER
MARCELO TALLIS
Affiliation:
4640 Admiralty Way, Suite 1010, Marina del Rey, CA 90292, USA; e-mail: mtallis@teknowledge.com, rand@nada.kth.se,balzer@teknowledge.com
RAND WALTZMAN
Affiliation:
4640 Admiralty Way, Suite 1010, Marina del Rey, CA 90292, USA; e-mail: mtallis@teknowledge.com, rand@nada.kth.se,balzer@teknowledge.com
ROBERT BLAZER
Affiliation:
4640 Admiralty Way, Suite 1010, Marina del Rey, CA 90292, USA; e-mail: mtallis@teknowledge.com, rand@nada.kth.se,balzer@teknowledge.com
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Abstract

We exploit the spreadsheet metaphor to make deductive problem-solving methods available to the vast population of spreadsheet end-users. In particular, we show how the function-based problem-solving capabilities of spreadsheets can be extended to include logical deductive methods in a way that is consistent with the existing spreadsheet ‘look and feel’. The foundation of our approach is the integration of a standard deductive logic system into a successful Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) spreadsheet. We have demonstrated this by designing and implementing an extension to Excel that manages the integration of Excel and a deductive logic engine based on the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) standard ontology language OWL + SWRL.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Knowledge Engineering Review , Volume 22 , Issue 3 , September 2007 , pp. 255 - 268
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2007

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