173,154 research outputs found
Logic programming in the context of multiparadigm programming: the Oz experience
Oz is a multiparadigm language that supports logic programming as one of its
major paradigms. A multiparadigm language is designed to support different
programming paradigms (logic, functional, constraint, object-oriented,
sequential, concurrent, etc.) with equal ease. This article has two goals: to
give a tutorial of logic programming in Oz and to show how logic programming
fits naturally into the wider context of multiparadigm programming. Our
experience shows that there are two classes of problems, which we call
algorithmic and search problems, for which logic programming can help formulate
practical solutions. Algorithmic problems have known efficient algorithms.
Search problems do not have known efficient algorithms but can be solved with
search. The Oz support for logic programming targets these two problem classes
specifically, using the concepts needed for each. This is in contrast to the
Prolog approach, which targets both classes with one set of concepts, which
results in less than optimal support for each class. To explain the essential
difference between algorithmic and search programs, we define the Oz execution
model. This model subsumes both concurrent logic programming
(committed-choice-style) and search-based logic programming (Prolog-style).
Instead of Horn clause syntax, Oz has a simple, fully compositional,
higher-order syntax that accommodates the abilities of the language. We
conclude with lessons learned from this work, a brief history of Oz, and many
entry points into the Oz literature.Comment: 48 pages, to appear in the journal "Theory and Practice of Logic
Programming
Singular and Plural Functions for Functional Logic Programming
Functional logic programming (FLP) languages use non-terminating and
non-confluent constructor systems (CS's) as programs in order to define
non-strict non-determi-nistic functions. Two semantic alternatives have been
usually considered for parameter passing with this kind of functions: call-time
choice and run-time choice. While the former is the standard choice of modern
FLP languages, the latter lacks some properties---mainly
compositionality---that have prevented its use in practical FLP systems.
Traditionally it has been considered that call-time choice induces a singular
denotational semantics, while run-time choice induces a plural semantics. We
have discovered that this latter identification is wrong when pattern matching
is involved, and thus we propose two novel compositional plural semantics for
CS's that are different from run-time choice.
We study the basic properties of our plural semantics---compositionality,
polarity, monotonicity for substitutions, and a restricted form of the bubbling
property for constructor systems---and the relation between them and to
previous proposals, concluding that these semantics form a hierarchy in the
sense of set inclusion of the set of computed values. We have also identified a
class of programs characterized by a syntactic criterion for which the proposed
plural semantics behave the same, and a program transformation that can be used
to simulate one of them by term rewriting. At the practical level, we study how
to use the expressive capabilities of these semantics for improving the
declarative flavour of programs. We also propose a language which combines
call-time choice and our plural semantics, that we have implemented in Maude.
The resulting interpreter is employed to test several significant examples
showing the capabilities of the combined semantics.
To appear in Theory and Practice of Logic Programming (TPLP)Comment: 53 pages, 5 figure
Maude: specification and programming in rewriting logic
Maude is a high-level language and a high-performance system supporting executable specification and declarative programming in rewriting logic. Since rewriting logic contains equational logic, Maude also supports equational specification and programming in its sublanguage of functional modules and theories. The underlying equational logic chosen for Maude is membership equational logic, that has sorts, subsorts, operator overloading, and partiality definable by membership and equality conditions. Rewriting logic is reflective, in the sense of being able to express its own metalevel at the object level. Reflection is systematically exploited in Maude endowing the language with powerful metaprogramming capabilities, including both user-definable module operations and declarative strategies to guide the deduction process. This paper explains and illustrates with examples the main concepts of Maude's language design, including its underlying logic, functional, system and object-oriented modules, as well as parameterized modules, theories, and views. We also explain how Maude supports reflection, metaprogramming and internal strategies. The paper outlines the principles underlying the Maude system implementation, including its semicompilation techniques. We conclude with some remarks about applications, work on a formal environment for Maude, and a mobile language extension of Maude
In Praise of Impredicativity: A Contribution to the Formalization of Meta-Programming
Processing programs as data is one of the successes of functional and logic programming. Higher-order functions, as program-processing programs are called in functional programming, and meta-programs, as they are called in logic programming, are widespread declarative programming techniques. In logic programming, there is a gap between the meta-programming practice and its theory: The formalizations of meta-programming do not explicitly address its impredicativity and are not fully adequate. This article aims at overcoming this unsatisfactory situation by discussing the relevance of impredicativity to meta-programming, by revisiting former formalizations of meta-programming, and by defining Reflective Predicate Logic, a conservative extension of first-order logic, which provides a simple formalization of meta-programming
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