The Influence Diagramer's Toolbox.

The influence diagram is a graphical modeling language for the formulation and analysis of decision analysis and probabilistic inference problems. This research developed a foundation for a complete set of influence diagram tools as an extension to the Lisp programming language. These tools can be used in an interactive manner to solve problems modeled as influence diagrams. This research demonstrated that multidimensional arrays and frames can be used as data structures for the storage of probabilistic and nodal information, respectively. Since the array held the probabilistic data, the use of a descriptor list was introduced to lend meaning to each dimension of the multidimensional array. The software that constitutes the toolbox, was prototyped using the APL language before being implemented in the target language, Lisp. This was advantageous in that APL was used to discover the correct array transformations that form the basis of the tools. The results of the software development indicate that the multidimensional array is a natural and effective foundation upon which to build a complete set of influence diagram tools. Theses