240 Chapter 9 Soft Computing SyStemS
In general, in soft computing, software is developed as a research solu-
tion for a specific problem or group of problems. At a high level, software
can be regarded as a black box taking input data, performing some sort of
processing, and returning output data. Uncertainty in one or more of these
stages—in the input data, in the output data, or in the processing stage—is
the primary concern.
A knowledge-based system imposes constraints on the processing in-
volved. It must be understandable at some level by a human with expertise
in the field addressed by the software. The program should be declarative in
nature so that the processing can be understood without reference to the
effect of a program ...