70 research outputs found
Declaratively solving Google Code Jam problems with Picat
In this paper we present several examples of solving algorithmic problems
from the Google Code Jam programming contest with Picat programming language
using declarative techniques: constraint logic programming and tabled logic
programming. In some cases the use of Picat simplifies the implementation
compared to conventional imperative programming languages, while in others it
allows to directly convert the problem statement into an efficiently solvable
declarative problem specification without inventing an imperative algorithm
Memoization in Constraint Logic Programming
This paper shows how to apply memoization (caching of subgoals and associated
answer substitutions) in a constraint logic programming setting. The research
is is motivated by the desire to apply constraint logic programming (CLP) to
problems in natural language processing that involve (constraint) interleaving
or coroutining, such as GB and HPSG parsing.Comment: 11 page
Automatic Generation of CHR Constraint Solvers
In this paper, we present a framework for automatic generation of CHR solvers
given the logical specification of the constraints. This approach takes
advantage of the power of tabled resolution for constraint logic programming,
in order to check the validity of the rules. Compared to previous works where
different methods for automatic generation of constraint solvers have been
proposed, our approach enables the generation of more expressive rules (even
recursive and splitting rules) that can be used directly as CHR solvers.Comment: to be published in Theory and Practice of Logic Programming, 16
pages, 2 figure
A Sketch of a Complete Scheme for Tabled Execution Based on Program Transformation
Tabled evaluation has proved to be an effective method to improve several aspects of goal-oriented query evaluation, including termination and complexity. “Native” implementations of tabled evaluation offer good performance, but also require significant implementation effort, affecting compiler and abstract machine. Alternatively, program transformation-based implementations, such as the original continuation call (CCall) technique, offer lower implementation burden at some efficiency cost. A limitation of the original CCall proposal is that it limits the interleaving of tabled and non-tabled predicates and thus cannot be used for arbitrary programs. In this work we present an extension of the CCall technique that allows the execution of arbitrary tabled programs, as well as some performance results. Our approach offers a useful tradeoff that can be competitive with state-of-the-art implementations, while keeping implementation effort relatively low
Optimal Placement of Valves in a Water Distribution Network with CLP(FD)
This paper presents a new application of logic programming to a real-life
problem in hydraulic engineering. The work is developed as a collaboration of
computer scientists and hydraulic engineers, and applies Constraint Logic
Programming to solve a hard combinatorial problem. This application deals with
one aspect of the design of a water distribution network, i.e., the valve
isolation system design.
We take the formulation of the problem by Giustolisi and Savic (2008) and
show how, thanks to constraint propagation, we can get better solutions than
the best solution known in the literature for the Apulian distribution network.
We believe that the area of the so-called hydroinformatics can benefit from
the techniques developed in Constraint Logic Programming and possibly from
other areas of logic programming, such as Answer Set Programming.Comment: Best paper award at the 27th International Conference on Logic
Programming - ICLP 2011; Theory and Practice of Logic Programming, (ICLP'11)
Special Issue, volume 11, issue 4-5, 201
Practical Run-time Checking via Unobtrusive Property Caching
The use of annotations, referred to as assertions or contracts, to describe
program properties for which run-time tests are to be generated, has become
frequent in dynamic programing languages. However, the frameworks proposed to
support such run-time testing generally incur high time and/or space overheads
over standard program execution. We present an approach for reducing this
overhead that is based on the use of memoization to cache intermediate results
of check evaluation, avoiding repeated checking of previously verified
properties. Compared to approaches that reduce checking frequency, our proposal
has the advantage of being exhaustive (i.e., all tests are checked at all
points) while still being much more efficient than standard run-time checking.
Compared to the limited previous work on memoization, it performs the task
without requiring modifications to data structure representation or checking
code. While the approach is general and system-independent, we present it for
concreteness in the context of the Ciao run-time checking framework, which
allows us to provide an operational semantics with checks and caching. We also
report on a prototype implementation and provide some experimental results that
support that using a relatively small cache leads to significant decreases in
run-time checking overhead.Comment: 30 pages, 1 table, 170 figures; added appendix with plots; To appear
in Theory and Practice of Logic Programming (TPLP), Proceedings of ICLP 201
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