SELECT: An interactive minicomputer subsystem for the generation of specialized narrative text
✍ Scribed by Dennis J. McLeod; Monte J. Meldman
- Publisher
- Elsevier Science
- Year
- 1977
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 517 KB
- Volume
- 10
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0010-4809
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
There exists a significant need for the ability to generate specialized narrative text in an interactive environment. This need is especially evident in the field of clinical medicine, where it became clear to the authors. For example, it is desirable to be able to generate descriptive reports for a given patient which have a standardized form and flexible content, such as a medical or psychiatric history. The SELECT subsystem allows the user to design and use SELECT programs (sets of instructions written in the SELECT language) which describe the nature of a narrative text report to be produced, as well as the nature of the user interaction necessary to construct it. SELECT interprets the instructions in the SELECT program, requests appropriate responses on the part of the user, and generates the specialized narrative output. The SELECT (programming) language provides facilities to allow user-supplied text to be inserted into the narrative output or used as decision criteria for further action, and to allow the user to "fill in" one or more options into a "blank" in a sentence. SELECT has been implemented on a minicomputer with a manufacturer supplied operating system (PDP/ll RSTS system).