Software: Progress is reported in expert systems and software to build such systems and in object-oriented programming

Knowledge systems — artificial-intelligence software capable of giving expert advice or analyzing complex information within particular limited domains - began to reach market in 1983, and further applications are expected this year. Interest in such systems has been spurred by next-generation computing projects in Japan, the United States, and elsewhere, and by the development of low-cost, high-power computers capable of running knowledge-systems software at relatively low cost. (Lisp Machines Inc., Symbolics Inc., and Xerox Corp., for example, are offering computers that run the artificial-intelligence language LISP for $30 000 to $70 000.)