Pacisco\Development\Architecture
The Pacisco system has at its heart a collection of XML documents containing all of its argument entries. These are held in an XML native database (eXist-db) to facilitate manipulation by XQuery.
The user interface is via Ajax web-pages which activate XQuery statements to search and update the argument documents.
How Pacisco implements the Toulmin model
Claims, grounds and warrants are expressed as simple, or compound propositions incorporating standard logical connectives. Simple propositions as they are entered cause a search of arguments already asserted; If a partial or full match is found, the existing proposition is offered.
Rebuttals and backing do not have specific identity. Each claim may have one or more cases consisting of grounds and warrant that either support or rebut. The claims used in these cases may be further substantiated or rebutted; the backing. The argumentation structure implemented by Pacisco is essentially recursive with the terminating condition being a self-evident case, or reference to an external resource (book, journal article etc.) supplying the grounds or warrant of a case.
Pacisco: to agree 