From the article:<p>> Conventional programming languages, such as FORTRAN and C, are designed and optimized for the
procedural manipulation of data (such as numbers and arrays). Humans, however, often solve complex
problems using very abstract, symbolic approaches which are not well suited for implementation in
conventional languages. Although abstract information can be modeled in these languages, considerable
programming effort is required to transform the information to a format usable with procedural
programming paradigms.<p>> One of the results of research in the area of artificial intelligence has been the development of techniques
which allow the modeling of information at higher levels of abstraction. These techniques are embodied in
languages or tools which allow programs to be built that closely resemble human logic in their
implementation and are therefore easier to develop and maintain. These programs, which emulate human
expertise in well defined problem domains, are called expert systems. The availability of expert system
tools has greatly reduced the effort and cost involved in developing an expert system.