FCA using the Concept Explorer in 2024

TL;DR

This paper introduces Formal Concept Analysis and demonstrates how to build concept lattices using the Concept Explorer software on Linux, including troubleshooting Java version issues to ensure proper functionality.

Contribution

It provides a practical guide for using Concept Explorer with modern Java versions on Linux, addressing compatibility issues and installation procedures.

Findings

ConExp can build concept lattices on Linux with proper Java setup.

Java version compatibility is crucial for ConExp functionality.

Guidelines for installing Java and running ConExp on Linux are provided.

Abstract

In this note we give a very short introduction to Formal Concept Analysis, accompanied by an example in order to build concept lattices from a context. We build the lattice using the Java-based software Concept Explorer (ConExp) in a recent version of Linux. Installing an appropriate Java version is necessary, because ConExp was developed some time ago using a Sun Java version, which is not open-source. As a result, it has been observed that ConExp will not build a lattice when started with an open-source Java version. Therefore, we also sketch the procedure we followed to install an appropriate Java version which makes ConExp work again, i.e., to "build lattices again". We also show how to start ConExp with a 32 bit Java version, which requires a few additional libraries.