6. A software shell as claimed in claim 3 wherein the blackboard module database includes a hierarchy of objects having vertical hierarchical connections and horizontal links.
6. A software shell as claimed in claim 3 wherein the blackboard module database includes a hierarchy of objects having vertical hierarchical connections and horizontal links. 7. A software shell as claimed in claim 6 wherein each blackboard object has attributes and each attribute has at least one value, the database including a hash table and plurality of pointers for linking the objects and corresponding attributes and values.