This paper presents the development of an integrated system, namely the COMAND-DSS (Decision Support System created under project COMAND), for crisis management and real-time decision support in shipboard flooding emergencies. It employs the case-based reasoning approach to provide swift and effective decisionmaking support for shipboard personnel during an emergency on ship. The developed system, which focuses on decision support for flooding control, is also thought to be useful as a crew training system. In order to deal with a flooding damage in the COMAND-DSS, a multiple attribute decision-making methodology-Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS)-is used to be able to choose the set of counter-flooding tanks that should be filled in order to achieve an optimal response to a flooding accident. The COMAND-DSS is composed of a knowledge base, a reasoning process and a graphical user interface for the shipboard personnel to interact with the system. The friendly windows-based user interface of the COMAND-DSS enables the user to take full advantage of the capabilities of the system in order to make quick decisions. Using this system, when a crisis occurs the optimal decisions and responses can be made in a short time, thereby reducing the risk to life, property and environment.
The idea of using rich text for programming looks promising. Some new avenues can open up by a programming environment that allows the programmers to use rich text formatting options (e.g. fonts, colors, highlighting, hyperlinks, embedded images, notes, audio, videos etc.) in their program text. Such an environment can be very useful towards enhancing program comprehension, especially in the context of maintaining large long-lived software systems. Computer programs are among the most complex and valuable creations of the human mind. Mankind has already produced billions of lines of code worth trillions of dollars. Countless man-hours of intense cognitive work would be required to maintain them. Any tool that improves maintainability of such assets can be a useful addition.
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