Abstract State Machines 1988-1998: Commented ASM Bibliography

An annotated bibliography of papers which deal with or use Abstract State Machines (ASMs), as of January 1998.Comment: Also maintained as a BibTeX file at http://www.eecs.umich.edu/gasm

Two Decades of Maude

This paper is a tribute to José Meseguer, from the rest of us in the Maude team, reviewing the past, the present, and the future of the language and system with which we have been working for around two decades under his leadership. After reviewing the origins and the language's main features, we present the latest additions to the language and some features currently under development. This paper is not an introduction to Maude, and some familiarity with it and with rewriting logic are indeed assumed.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Introduction to the 28th International Conference on Logic Programming Special Issue

We are proud to introduce this special issue of the Journal of Theory and Practice of Logic Programming (TPLP), dedicated to the full papers accepted for the 28th International Conference on Logic Programming (ICLP). The ICLP meetings started in Marseille in 1982 and since then constitute the main venue for presenting and discussing work in the area of logic programming

Logic Programming Approaches for Representing and Solving Constraint Satisfaction Problems: A Comparison

Many logic programming based approaches can be used to describe and solve combinatorial search problems. On the one hand there is constraint logic programming which computes a solution as an answer substitution to a query containing the variables of the constraint satisfaction problem. On the other hand there are systems based on stable model semantics, abductive systems, and first order logic model generators which compute solutions as models of some theory. This paper compares these different approaches from the point of view of knowledge representation (how declarative are the programs) and from the point of view of performance (how good are they at solving typical problems).Comment: 15 pages, 3 eps-figure

Automatic Termination Analysis of Programs Containing Arithmetic Predicates

For logic programs with arithmetic predicates, showing termination is not easy, since the usual order for the integers is not well-founded. A new method, easily incorporated in the TermiLog system for automatic termination analysis, is presented for showing termination in this case. The method consists of the following steps: First, a finite abstract domain for representing the range of integers is deduced automatically. Based on this abstraction, abstract interpretation is applied to the program. The result is a finite number of atoms abstracting answers to queries which are used to extend the technique of query-mapping pairs. For each query-mapping pair that is potentially non-terminating, a bounded (integer-valued) termination function is guessed. If traversing the pair decreases the value of the termination function, then termination is established. Simple functions often suffice for each query-mapping pair, and that gives our approach an edge over the classical approach of using a single termination function for all loops, which must inevitably be more complicated and harder to guess automatically. It is worth noting that the termination of McCarthy's 91 function can be shown automatically using our method. In summary, the proposed approach is based on combining a finite abstraction of the integers with the technique of the query-mapping pairs, and is essentially capable of dividing a termination proof into several cases, such that a simple termination function suffices for each case. Consequently, the whole process of proving termination can be done automatically in the framework of TermiLog and similar systems.Comment: Appeared also in Electronic Notes in Computer Science vol. 3