From Richard Wheeler rw@starlab.net

Sure - in fact we have decided to make the shell system open source, and post
the code and archives on the web for academic use.  While I have not had the
time to build the open source web site or hook it into Source Forge yet, you
should feel free to distribute it academically or use it in the classroom as
you see fit.  Here are some things to remember about the shell in case it
doesn't work or you have problems.  

- There are three versions of the shell - the demo version , a JAVA/web version (maintained by Stuart Aitken at AIAI), and a commercial version.  The demo version has a few things disabled.  The demo version now has a lot of bug fixes and ODBC support turned on under a Starlab
co-branded version.  Send any bug reports to me.

- Please download the latest software from
http://foobar.starlab.net/~rw/cbrv241.zip run the demonstration (tutorial),
and contact me with any questions or comments.  This is a later version which
plays more nicely with Win2K, is not password protected, and may include the
source code (I can't remember).  Please let me know if you distribute the code
elsewhere or use it for teaching.

- Except for the HELP system in the software itself, there are no support or
help materials available.

- I have now distributed about 1000 copies of the program throughout the
world, and a number of universities (especially in Africa and Asia) use it for
teaching in their computer science/AI courses.  I get about three inquiries a
week for downloads.

- The demo version is really meant for teaching - it puts all of the functions
of CBR right on the interface to give the user  "hands on" experience of what
things do.  It lacks the indexing, automatic feature weighting, and case
management features of the commercial version.

- CBR for design is still pretty rare; the demo version allows the user to
experiment with CBR for design and write custom adaption routines for their
data.

- IF THE SHELL DOESN'T WORK or some interface components are missing, it is
almost always DLL conflicts.  Try running the installation routine and saying
"no" to "Keep existing file?" - this will roll-back the DLL versions and
should allow the system to run normally after a reboot.  WIN2000 does not
allow this - contact me if you have a version and OS that don't seem to want
to work together and I can make a custom DLL package.