Preface

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Preface
*******

Soar is an integrated architecture for knowledge-based problem solving,
learning, and interaction with external environments.  The authors of this
manual assume a basic understanding of artificial intelligence, and/or
information processing psychology, and some specific knowledge of production
systems.  For further background on Soar, we recommend, *The Soar Papers:
Readings on Integrated Intelligence*, Rosenbloom, Laird, and Newell (1993),
and *Unified Theories of Cognition*, Newell (1990).

This manual is specific to version 6 of Soar, which incorporates significant
enhancements from version 5.  It is also specific to release 1 (i.e., Soar
6.1).  Future releases of Soar 6 will be accompanied by release notes that
describe changes relative to this manual.  Soar is written in ANSI C and runs
on a variety of workstations and personal computers.

In addition to Soar, there is a Soar Development Environment (SDE).  SDE is a
facility for developing Soar programs using GNU Emacs.  It includes
programming facilities tailored for Soar and a powerful interface for
interacting with Soar itself.

The authors would like to give special thanks to Paul Rosenbloom and Allen
Newell for their invaluable comments on earlier versions of the manual.  We
would like to thank Tom F. McGinnis, Brian Milnes, Gary Pelton, David Steier,
Milind Tambe, and Mark Wiesmeyer for their comments and technical advice.
Gary Pelton, and Scott Huffman have contributed text for sections in the
manual for which we are very greatful.  We would also like to thank the Soar
group for their patient support.  Soar 6 was originally implemented by Bob
Doorenbos.
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