An on‐line numerical data system

The building of an on‐line numerical data bank with some built‐in intelligence is described. The data, which consisted mainly of inter‐atomic potential energy functions, was extracted from the literature, critically evaluated and stored on disc. Software was written for data input and for appending, editing, displaying retrieving and manipulating the data. The system allows the user scientist, by answering multiple choice questions, not only to retrieve the data in the same form as it was found in the literature with reference material, but also to change it or to operate on it, to present it in the units and form he wants, for example as a graph, or to interpolate in a table or to perform other functions. It is concluded that this ability to use the intelligence of the computer for manipulation of numerical data will make such data systems much more effective than on‐line reference systems.