Choice Review

Coyne and colleagues write about the application of formal methods and automation to the process of design. They describe formal models of the design process, its principles, techniques, and tools, and discuss the kinds of knowledge required to perform design activities and how that information can be classified, modeled, and controlled. This book is packed full of useful and thought-provoking ideas. Readers familiar with artificial intelligence and rule-based systems will find many of the models interesting and somewhat atypical of artificial intelligence approaches. Readers with computer aided design or expert system backgrounds will find the treatment to be more theoretically oriented than mechanism oriented. It is well organized and thorough in its treatment of each topic. The material is presented in three parts: design; representation and reasoning; and knowledge-based design. Chapter-end references; diagrams and illustration; high-quality index; rich bibliography. This book is an excellent reference volume, with broad-based and deep coverage. For graduate students and researchers in knowledge-based systems, computer aided design, and expert systems. -F. H. Wild, III, University of Rhode Island