power-level [Function]

Purpose

The power-level function allows the user to turn off (or down) certain expensive types of inferencing in order to gain a possibly substantial increase in classifier performance.

Syntax

power-level &optional level

Arguments

The level argument is either :low, :medium, or :high. The default level is :high, which maximizes inferencing at the expense of speed. Setting the level to :low causes some inferences to be missed, but these are relatively seldom-used and losing them should not affect most applications.

Value

This function returns the level argument if one was supplied, and otherwise it returns the current power level.

Remarks

It is difficult to precisely characterize the types of inferencing affected by the power-level. In practice, the user can compare the results of different power settings and choose a lower level if it affords a reasonable speedup without sacrificing required deductions.

Examples

(power-level) ==> :HIGH 
(power-level :low) ==> :LOW