107,307 research outputs found
Constructing functional programs for grammar analysis problems
Abstract This paper discusses the derivation of functional programs for grammar analysis problems, such as the EMPTY problem and the REACH-ABLE problem. Grammar analysis problems can be divided into two classes: top-down problems such as FOLLOW and REACH-ABLE, which are described in terms of the contexts of nonterminals, and bottom-up problems such as EMPTY and FIRST, which do not refer to contexts. In a previous paper we derive a program for bottom-up grammar analysis problems. In this paper we derive a program for top-down grammar analysis problems by transforming the specification of an arbitrary top-down problem into a program. The existence of a solution is guaranteed provided some natural conditions are satisfied. Furthermore, we describe a general transformation that applies to both classes of grammar analysis problems. The result of this transformation is a program that avoids unnecessary computations in the computation of a fixed point. Constructor classes, which are used to abstract from the notions bottom-up and top-down, are an essential ingredient of the latter derivation
Transforming floundering into success
We show how logic programs with "delays" can be transformed to programs
without delays in a way which preserves information concerning floundering
(also known as deadlock). This allows a declarative (model-theoretic),
bottom-up or goal independent approach to be used for analysis and debugging of
properties related to floundering. We rely on some previously introduced
restrictions on delay primitives and a key observation which allows properties
such as groundness to be analysed by approximating the (ground) success set.
This paper is to appear in Theory and Practice of Logic Programming (TPLP).
Keywords: Floundering, delays, coroutining, program analysis, abstract
interpretation, program transformation, declarative debuggingComment: Number of pages: 24 Number of figures: 9 Number of tables: non
Formal Derivation of Concurrent Garbage Collectors
Concurrent garbage collectors are notoriously difficult to implement
correctly. Previous approaches to the issue of producing correct collectors
have mainly been based on posit-and-prove verification or on the application of
domain-specific templates and transformations. We show how to derive the upper
reaches of a family of concurrent garbage collectors by refinement from a
formal specification, emphasizing the application of domain-independent design
theories and transformations. A key contribution is an extension to the
classical lattice-theoretic fixpoint theorems to account for the dynamics of
concurrent mutation and collection.Comment: 38 pages, 21 figures. The short version of this paper appeared in the
Proceedings of MPC 201
SLT-Resolution for the Well-Founded Semantics
Global SLS-resolution and SLG-resolution are two representative mechanisms
for top-down evaluation of the well-founded semantics of general logic
programs. Global SLS-resolution is linear for query evaluation but suffers from
infinite loops and redundant computations. In contrast, SLG-resolution resolves
infinite loops and redundant computations by means of tabling, but it is not
linear. The principal disadvantage of a non-linear approach is that it cannot
be implemented using a simple, efficient stack-based memory structure nor can
it be easily extended to handle some strictly sequential operators such as cuts
in Prolog.
In this paper, we present a linear tabling method, called SLT-resolution, for
top-down evaluation of the well-founded semantics. SLT-resolution is a
substantial extension of SLDNF-resolution with tabling. Its main features
include: (1) It resolves infinite loops and redundant computations while
preserving the linearity. (2) It is terminating, and sound and complete w.r.t.
the well-founded semantics for programs with the bounded-term-size property
with non-floundering queries. Its time complexity is comparable with
SLG-resolution and polynomial for function-free logic programs. (3) Because of
its linearity for query evaluation, SLT-resolution bridges the gap between the
well-founded semantics and standard Prolog implementation techniques. It can be
implemented by an extension to any existing Prolog abstract machines such as
WAM or ATOAM.Comment: Slight modificatio
On the Relation of Interaction Semantics to Continuations and Defunctionalization
In game semantics and related approaches to programming language semantics,
programs are modelled by interaction dialogues. Such models have recently been
used in the design of new compilation methods, e.g. for hardware synthesis or
for programming with sublinear space. This paper relates such semantically
motivated non-standard compilation methods to more standard techniques in the
compilation of functional programming languages, namely continuation passing
and defunctionalization. We first show for the linear {\lambda}-calculus that
interpretation in a model of computation by interaction can be described as a
call-by-name CPS-translation followed by a defunctionalization procedure that
takes into account control-flow information. We then establish a relation
between these two compilation methods for the simply-typed {\lambda}-calculus
and end by considering recursion
GEM: a Distributed Goal Evaluation Algorithm for Trust Management
Trust management is an approach to access control in distributed systems
where access decisions are based on policy statements issued by multiple
principals and stored in a distributed manner. In trust management, the policy
statements of a principal can refer to other principals' statements; thus, the
process of evaluating an access request (i.e., a goal) consists of finding a
"chain" of policy statements that allows the access to the requested resource.
Most existing goal evaluation algorithms for trust management either rely on a
centralized evaluation strategy, which consists of collecting all the relevant
policy statements in a single location (and therefore they do not guarantee the
confidentiality of intensional policies), or do not detect the termination of
the computation (i.e., when all the answers of a goal are computed). In this
paper we present GEM, a distributed goal evaluation algorithm for trust
management systems that relies on function-free logic programming for the
specification of policy statements. GEM detects termination in a completely
distributed way without disclosing intensional policies, thereby preserving
their confidentiality. We demonstrate that the algorithm terminates and is
sound and complete with respect to the standard semantics for logic programs.Comment: To appear in Theory and Practice of Logic Programming (TPLP
Productive Corecursion in Logic Programming
Logic Programming is a Turing complete language. As a consequence, designing
algorithms that decide termination and non-termination of programs or decide
inductive/coinductive soundness of formulae is a challenging task. For example,
the existing state-of-the-art algorithms can only semi-decide coinductive
soundness of queries in logic programming for regular formulae. Another, less
famous, but equally fundamental and important undecidable property is
productivity. If a derivation is infinite and coinductively sound, we may ask
whether the computed answer it determines actually computes an infinite
formula. If it does, the infinite computation is productive. This intuition was
first expressed under the name of computations at infinity in the 80s. In
modern days of the Internet and stream processing, its importance lies in
connection to infinite data structure processing.
Recently, an algorithm was presented that semi-decides a weaker property --
of productivity of logic programs. A logic program is productive if it can give
rise to productive derivations. In this paper we strengthen these recent
results. We propose a method that semi-decides productivity of individual
derivations for regular formulae. Thus we at last give an algorithmic
counterpart to the notion of productivity of derivations in logic programming.
This is the first algorithmic solution to the problem since it was raised more
than 30 years ago. We also present an implementation of this algorithm.Comment: Paper presented at the 33nd International Conference on Logic
Programming (ICLP 2017), Melbourne, Australia, August 28 to September 1, 2017
16 pages, LaTeX, no figure
PonyGE2: Grammatical Evolution in Python
Grammatical Evolution (GE) is a population-based evolutionary algorithm,
where a formal grammar is used in the genotype to phenotype mapping process.
PonyGE2 is an open source implementation of GE in Python, developed at UCD's
Natural Computing Research and Applications group. It is intended as an
advertisement and a starting-point for those new to GE, a reference for
students and researchers, a rapid-prototyping medium for our own experiments,
and a Python workout. As well as providing the characteristic genotype to
phenotype mapping of GE, a search algorithm engine is also provided. A number
of sample problems and tutorials on how to use and adapt PonyGE2 have been
developed.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, submitted to the 2017 GECCO Workshop on
Evolutionary Computation Software Systems (EvoSoft
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