## Browsing a Cyc® Constant

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| Viewing Cyc Constants with the Web Interface
| How A Constant is Presented

The KB Browser page is divided into three frames. The frame at the top has a type-in pane for specifying Cyc constants. The middle or "main" frame contains an area titled "Recent KB Browser History". If you have been browsing through the KB, then you will find clickable links here to constants and assertions you have recently viewed. The bottom frame contains links and information to help the user keep track of the Cyc Agenda. At any time you may click the help question mark in a frame
in order to go to a help page that explains what function the various items in a page perform. For now we will ignore the middle and bottom frame and concentrate on the top frame.

Before we get started looking at constants, click on the link "Tools" in the top frame. This will bring you to a window "Browser Tools" that will allow you to add links to the the top frame. Find the line that reads, "History Recent Browser History". Make sure the button to the left of this line is selected (i.e. "pressed down") then click on the button "Update Toolbar". You will see a link appear in the top frame titled "History"; click on this link and you'll be back where we started.

We're going to look at the Cyc constant #$TeethCleaning:

Type "TeethCleaning" in the type-in pane.

Click the "Show" button, or hit "Return" on your keyboard. Notice that you do not type the "#$" prefix when entering the constant name. On the other hand, make sure that your capitalization is exact: the name of the constant is "TeethCleaning", not "teethcleaning" or "Teethcleaning".

If you do accidentally misspell the Cyc Constant name (and Cyc cannot determine another constant with that misspelling), then you will be taken to a page titled "Alphabetical search for 'teethCleaning'". Simply use the browser's "Back" link (next to the help icon) to go back to the previous page.

Once you have entered "TeethCleaning" and clicked on "Show", a new page will appear. The middle frame of this page will be split into two frames. The frame on the left is titled "Term Index", and the frame on the right is titled "Collection : TeethCleaning ". In general, the pane on the right will be titled "Collection : Constant Name" or "Constant : Constant Name" depending on whether or not the Cyc Constant is an instance of #$Collection.

The frame on the right contains information about the constant. The frame on the left contains links that bring up different types of information about the constant. One or both frames may have scroll-bars which may be used like scroll-bars in any other window. Even though the sections displayed in the right window, such as Arg: 1, may be displayed as navigational links in the left frame, not all of the sections displayed as links in the left frame can be found by simply scrolling the right frame. You will have to click on these links to bring the corresponding sections up in the right frame.

In the frame on the right, starting with the section titled Arg: 1, the page displays the assertions in the KB in which #$TeethCleaning is involved. Notice that most of the text in these sections are links. Each Cyc constant referenced can be displayed by clicking on its name. If you want to, try following a few links. Remember you can click on the "History" link in the top frame to get back to the "Recent KB Browser History" page where there will now be a link to the #$TeethCleaning page under Recent Constants: so you don't have to reenter the constant.

Last Update: 03/22/2002