Jess

Jess is a cool rule engine and scripting environment made entirely in Sun's JavaTM language. It was created by Ernest Friedman-Hill at Sandia National Laboratories, located in Livermore, CA. So, if you're into building smart software, Jess might just be what you need!

What is Jess?

Originally inspired by the CLIPS expert system shell, Jess has grown into its own unique and dynamic environment. With Jess, you can build Java software that can actually 'reason' using rules you provide. It's pretty neat because it’s small, lightweight, and one of the fastest rule engines out there.

Compatibility with CLIPS

The core language of Jess still works well with CLIPS. Many scripts you write in Jess will also work as valid CLIPS scripts and vice-versa! Like CLIPS, Jess uses something called the Rete algorithm to process rules. This is a super-efficient way to tackle the tricky many-to-many matching problem.

Cool Features of Jess

Jess brings a lot to the table compared to CLIPS. Some awesome features include backwards chaining (which helps find solutions), working memory queries (to pull specific data), and the ability to handle Java objects directly. Plus, it’s a strong Java scripting environment where you can create Java objects and call methods without needing to compile any Java code!

Licensing Options

If you're thinking about using Jess, it can be licensed for commercial use as well as being available for academic purposes.