True Names and Public Names

 

A frame has two different types of name.

•   Every frame has a single true name (tname), which is a symbol referring uniquely to that frame. In the Lisp implementation, the tname is the Lisp symbol on whose property list the frame structure is stored.
•   A frame can have any number of public names (pnames), which are strings, and need not be uniquely referring. Public names are stored as values in the name slot of the frame. An indexing mechanism (case insensitive) allows frames to be retrieved given a public name. 

True names are the pointers from one frame to another that actually represent the structure of the knowledge base. Public names are for communication with other agents.

For ease of debugging and interaction, when a new frame has a simple public name, Algernon attempts to generate a true name that has the same or similar printed representation. Similarly, the user interface attempts to retrieve the desired frame, whether you type its true name or its public name.