4P's for September 20, 1996

Progress

Began integrating my associative feature stuff into the GIPS blocks world implementation. Re-wrote some of the Tcl/Tk stuff to bring it up to 7.0.4 standards. Discovered some new bugs in my blocks world code from the start of this summer and fixed them.
Got in touch with Tom Head and discussed the Mac and PC ports of Soar. He's completing a first pass through the Mac code this weekend and will FTP me the changes at the start of next week. This should give me a good summary of changes that need to be made.

Complete the integration of associative feature stuff into blocks world. Demonstrate (1) that GIPS learn a new "internal" subgoal (e.g., that a block must be clear before you can place it on another block), and (2) that GIPS "unlearn" and unnecessary subgoal (e.g., that a block must be on the table before you can place it on another block).

Formalize and document the feature association stuff. This seems like it might be a "least publishable unit" by itself if I could do some empirical studies.
Identify and document a specific mechanism for producting the SUM to Shortcut-SUM strategy shift using mechanisms available within Soar.
Soar project work? GUI stuff? Meet with Karen (by phone?) to discuss Tcl7.5/Tk4.1 issues? Enhancements to web stuff (e.g., with Sayan)?
Complete the implementation of the FIRST and MIN strategies. After doing the SHORTCUT-SUM, I have a new respect for the amount of energy it takes to massage these together coherently. FIRST will be hard (SAY "addend" == REPRESENT-ADDEND): MIN given FIRST should be easy (just preference on assignment). This needs to get done eventually, but we've all agreed that it'd be most productive to concentrate on the first strategy shift.