view FaCT++-linux-v1.5.2/README @ 21:ffde1fafa066 draft

README corrected with proper installation instructions for mercurial (hg pull + hg update)

This is a README file for the FaCT++ v1.1.6 reasoner distribution.

This file contains following information

1. Introduction
2. Contents of distribution
3. Installation
4. Usage
5. Known problems
6. Contact information

1. Introduction
---------------

FaCT++ is re-implementation of the well-known FaCT Description Logic (DL) 
Reasoner. This reasoner currently supports the SROIQ(D) description Logic
language, which corresponds to OWL DL ontology language standard.
The current version is 1.1.6. This is source distribution package so it can
be used on different platforms. It was tested on Windows, Linux and MacOS X.

FaCT++ is distributed under GNU Public License (GPL). Full text of license
can be found at http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.txt. Libraries that are 
provided by the FaCT++ are distributed under the GNU Lesser Public License
(LGPL).

2. Contents of distribution
---------------------------

  file              description
  
- src/             FaCT++ source code
- bin/ and lib/    FaCT++ precompiled binaries
- Models.lisp/     examples and infrastructure for FaCT++ lisp reasoner
- licensing/       license information
- README           this file

3. Installation
---------------

3.1 Building system from sources
--------------------------------

For building system you will need GNU c++ compiler and GNU make (version 3.3
and higher were tested). Change GENERAL_DEFINES macro in src/Makefile.include
to make it suitable for your computer. Then just run "make".

In order to compile DIG part you will also need an XML parsing library
Xerces-c (freely avaliable at http://xml.apache.org/xerces-c/). Make sure
that Xerces-c package is installed system-wide or you have environment
variable XERCESCROOT which points to Xerces-c root directory.

In order to compile OWL-API interface (src/FaCTPlusPlusJNI/) it is necessary
to have JNI development files (jni.h) available.

4. Usage
--------

4.1 Standalone FaCT++ with lisp-like interface
----------------------------------------------

Models.lisp directory of this distribution contains some files that
support FaCT++ reasoning as well as examples of KBs.

To use standalone reasoner user should usually perform the following steps:
- create an ontology using the FaCT++ input language
- create a working directory (i.e. TEST) for FaCT++ using the command
        create-new-test TEST ontology
  where "ontology" is the name of the file containing your FaCT++ ontology
- inside TEST directory run
        make
        
This will run FaCT++ reasoner on the newly created config-file for the
given ontology. The results of FaCT++'s reasoning appear in following files:

- Taxonomy.Roles contains information about the roles taxonomy;
- Taxonomy.log contains information about the concept taxonomy (if it was requested);
- dl.res contains full information about the ontology and some statistical 
  information about the reasoning process;

4.1.1 Ontology creation
-----------------------

There are three ways of creating an ontology for FaCT++

- Hand-made ontology. This way is not recommended for the end user.
- Using OilEd (http://oiled.man.ac.uk). Load an ontology to the OilEd
  then choose Export|FaCT++ lisp.
- From the OWL source using the OWL Ontology Converter 
  (http://phoebus.cs.man.ac.uk:9999/OWL/Converter). Set the ontology URL to
  the OWL ontology, choose FaCT++ as the output language, press Convert and then
  copy the resulting ontology text to the FaCT++ ontology file.

4.1.2 Reasoning process
-----------------------

There are a number of options that could influence the reasoning process. All 
options, their format and description are given in the config file, which is
generated by the create-new-test script.

4.2 FaCT++ as an HTTP DIG reasoner
----------------------------------

Run FaCT++.Server with optional parameter "-port <port>". Default value of
<port> is 3490.

This reasoner will avaliable at http://<host>:<port>, where <host> is
a name of a computer running FaCT++.Server.

4.3 FaCT++ as an HTTP OWL reasoner
---------------------------------

Use FaCT++ as describe in section 4.2. Then connect your OWL editor like
Protege (http://protege.stanford.edu/) to the FaCT++ using address 
http://<host>:<port>

5. Known problems
-----------------

6. Contact information
----------------------

For any problems concerning FaCT++ please contact Dmitry Tsarkov
([e-mail]).  Any questions, suggestions or bug reports are
welcome!

Last updated: 01/05/2007