Book reivew: A NATURAL LANGUAGE INTERFACE FOR COMPUTER-AIDED DESIGN by Tariq Samad (Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1986)

Abstract

Tariq Samad's A Natural Language Interface for Computer Aided Design describes a parser developed as part of the author's doctoral thesis at CMU's Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. The motivation for this work, i.e. to develop a natural language front end for a circuit-simulation program (SPICE), was pragmatic not theoretical. Samad's parser, CLEOPATRA, is not easily positioned in the large body of theory which has developed over the last two decades in natural language research; however, it does share some similarities with work in Conceptual Dependency Theory. Basically, he feels this application, because of its "complexity," requires a novel approach.