February 1993 - COGNITIVE COMPUTING


FEATURES

WHAT IS COGNITIVE COMPUTING? by R. Colin Johnson

Cognitive computing is an emerging set of problem-solving methods that mimic the intelligence found in nature to solve tough problems that resist straightforward analysis. In addition to detailing what the discipline is, Colin examines how cognitive computing technologies are finding their way into the real world of application development.

GENETIC ALGORITHMS by Richard Spillman

Genetic algorithms randomly search for the best answer by modeling the way in which human genetic processes seem to operate. After explaining how genetic algorithms work, Richard implements one in Prolog.

CELLULAR AUTOMATA FOR SOLVING MAZES by Basem A. Nayfeh

Maze-solving algorithms have long been of interest because of their use in routing problems. Basem shows you how to use a cellular-automata algorithm implemented in C to run a maze.

FUZZY LOGIC IN C by Greg Viot

Fuzzy logic is a powerful problem-solving technique that's particularly useful in applications involving decision making or with problems not easily definable by practical mathematical models. Greg presents a general-purpose, fuzzy-based inference engine written in C.

EMBEDDED SYSTEMS

A NEURAL-NETWORK AUDIO SYNTHESIZER by Mark Thorson, Forrest Warthman, and Mark Holler

Our authors use intel's neural-net chip to build a powerful sound synthesizer that generates a remarkable range of audio effects, from unique space-age and science-fiction sounds to passages that sound like heart beats, drums, gongs, porpoises, birds, engines, and musical instruments such as violas and flutes.

NETWORKED SYSTEMS

UNTANGLING THE WINDOWS SOCKETS API by Mike Calbaum, Frank Porcaro, Mark Ruegsegger, and Bruce Backman

The Windows Sockets API is an open, standard programming interface for developing TCP/IP) network applications for Microsoft Windows. As a standardized programming interface, the API allows you to develop one application that will run unmodified over any TCP/IP network stack with a Windows Sockets-compliant API.

EXAMINING ROOM

INSIDE THE WINDOWS MESSAGING SYSTEM by Matt Pietrek

All Windows applications depend on the Windows messaging system, and understanding how the system works is fundamental to writing powerful Windows programs. Matt provides a detailed look at this complex, not fully documented area of Windows, and presents pseudocode for key routines.

PROGRAMMER'S WORKBENCH

NEURAL NETS FOR PREDICTING BEHAVIOR by James F. Farley and Peter D. Varhol

An off-the-shelf neural-network package is used to build a software model that takes sensor input and predicts wind speed and direction as output. Along the way, it solves problems like noisy data.

COLUMNS

PROGRAMMING PARADIGMS by Michael Swaine

Michael wraps up his two-part conversation with Stephen Wolfram, developer of Mathematica. This month, they discuss science, programming, business, and why some mathematicians don't like Stephen.

C PROGRAMMING by Al Stevens

This month AI looks at D-Flat++'s Application, Control, and textBox window classes, then compares the Source code for these modules with the Source code for the same features.

STRUCTURED PROGRAMMING by Jeff Duntemann

Jeff decides it's time to talk about intelligently managing data, noting that structured languages are particularly weak at data management. He then shares his notions of good database design.

GRAPHICS PROGRAMMING by Michael Abrash

Michael continues his foray into dirty-rectangle animation, a technique capable of producing animation of very high visual quality without help from video hardware or extra, nondisplayed video memory. This month's assembly language implementation of low-level drawing routines really boosts performance.

PROGRAMMER'S BOOKSHELF by Ray Duncan

There's a passel of recent books on navigating the Internet, and Ray examines three of them: Zen and the Art of the Internet, The Whole Internet User's Guide, and A Directory of Electronic Mail Addressing and Networks.

FORUM

EDITORIAL by Jonathan Erickson

LETTERS by you

SWAINE'S FLAMES by Michael Swaine

PROGRAMMER'S SERVICES

OF INTEREST by Tami Zemel


Copyright © 1993, Dr. Dobb's Journal