Abstract: A system in which a case-based search engine is integrated into a "help" database. The help database may be organized in a predetermined manner and converted by a computer program into a case-based format. An operator of a "help" program (e.g., a user who desires on-line help) may request a case-based search of the case-base using case-based methods. The case-based search provides a set of likely cases, i.e., help topics, from among which the operator may select the next help topic to view. The system may also present matched objects in response to the query, may respond to iterative refinement of the query (in similar manner to known iterative case-based methods) and may order matched objects by quality of match.

Abstract: A case-based reasoning system which is smoothly integrated into a rule-based reasoning system, thus coordinating case-based reasoning techniques and rule-based reasoning techniques in a unified automated reasoning system, in which an automated processor may proceed by inferential reasoning on the facts of the problem and the cases by means of rule-based reasoning techniques or based on procedural directives supplied by a human programmer, and may select the case which is the best match for the problem, but may act differently from the precise action prescribed for that case. A technique for dynamically adapting the case base to the problems which the automated reasoning system encounters, in which the processor may create additional cases which may exemplify the problem or which may be useful for future problems, or may remove cases from the case base which it determines from experience are poor or obsolete.