MINERVA superseeded IF/Prolog.
Please see
http://www.ifcomputer.co.jp/MINERVA
for details.
We discontinued to sell IF/Prolog Dec 31. 2003.
For current customers, we continue to provide
professional support for IF/Prolog until Dec 31, 2008.
The Information Systems section of a CPA office registered in Tokyo
asked consultants of IF Computer Japan to convert a section of the
Japanese tax system into machine readable and executable form.
The law-like text is published every year by the Japanese Ministry
of Finance and is the body of rules that auditors should adhere to
in complex tax cases.
The task in question, value estimation of not publicly traded
stock of large companies is legally required under certain
circumstances. It usually takes months for a CPA, with
corresponding subtantial government condoned retainer fees.
IF Computer implemented a one-to-one mapping from the regulations
into Prolog and developped the executive for these rules.
The final system is designed to interface with standard accounting files.
System components are IF/Prolog for the legal knowledge and executive,
OSF/Motif for the user interface, and machines from Sun Microsystems.
The CPA firm estimates the productivity increase at a factor of
about 200. In addition to this immediate internal gain from two orders
of magnitude in cost reduction, the firm expects to expand their
business by better service: the system allows to simulate
the fiscal impact of legal taxpayer choices. With traditional methods
this was prohibitively time consuming.
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