7. The process of claim 2 , wherein the entity class of each semantic entity identifies one or more transforms that apply to that class of entities, and wherein the process action of, for each input-output example, identifying one or more transforms from a library of transforms of a type that can produce the desired output item from the input items, comprises the actions of: identifying the parse descriptor tuples associated with the input items of the input-output example; identifying the parse descriptor tuple associated with the output item of the input-output example; and for each of the one or more transforms associated with the classes of the entities in the parse descriptor tuples of the input and output items of the input-output example, identifying those transforms that when applied to the semantic entities of the identified parse descriptor tuples associated with the input items produce the entity of the identified parse descriptor tuple associated with the output item, and computing a weighting factor for each such transform, where the weighting factor is a measure of the likelihood of the transform being the desired one.
7. The process of claim 2 , wherein the entity class of each semantic entity identifies one or more transforms that apply to that class of entities, and wherein the process action of, for each input-output example, identifying one or more transforms from a library of transforms of a type that can produce the desired output item from the input items, comprises the actions of: identifying the parse descriptor tuples associated with the input items of the input-output example; identifying the parse descriptor tuple associated with the output item of the input-output example; and for each of the one or more transforms associated with the classes of the entities in the parse descriptor tuples of the input and output items of the input-output example, identifying those transforms that when applied to the semantic entities of the identified parse descriptor tuples associated with the input items produce the entity of the identified parse descriptor tuple associated with the output item, and computing a weighting factor for each such transform, where the weighting factor is a measure of the likelihood of the transform being the desired one. 13. The process of claim 7 , wherein the process action of identifying formatting instructions which are capable of formatting an output item so as to match the formatting of the desired output item of the input-output example, comprises the process actions of: for each semantic entity field identified in the parse descriptor of the parse descriptor tuple associated with the output item of the input-output example, determining whether the semantic entity field is one of a group of prescribed base-type fields; whenever a semantic field in the parse descriptor of the parse descriptor tuple associated with the output item of the input-output example is determined to be a base-type field, associating formatting instructions with that semantic field which have been pre-defined for that type of base-type field; whenever a semantic field in the parse descriptor of the parse descriptor tuple associated with the output item of the input-output example is determined not to be a base-type field, associating formatting instructions which produce the corresponding field of the semantic entity of that descriptor tuple in the format exhibited by the portion of the output item associated with the semantic entity field.