Rule Block

Rule Block

Where Is It?

The rule block is found in the Primary drawer of the Blawx toolbox.

What Does It Do?

The rule block is used to set out rules with which Blawx can infer new information from facts. Most legislative provisions will be modeled as one or more rules.

The first statement connector, labeled "When we know:", allows you to set out the conditions in which the rule is true.

The second statement connect, labeled "We also know:", allows you to set out the new conclusion that can be drawn when the conditions are known to be true. This should be a single statement.

Technical Details

The rule block is an outer block.

Its top statement connector accepts a stack of one or more condition statements. These statements are treated as though they are all connected with an "and" operator, and all variable names are shared among them, and with the conclusion.

Its bottom statement connector accepts exactly one conclusion statement.

Tips

Blawx does not currently support an "or" operator. In the meantime, if the same conclusion can be reached in multiple ways, that should be represented by multiple rules with the same conclusion.

Typically, you will want to avoid having variables in the conclusion that are not also present in the conditions.