Seamless Cooperation of JAVA and PROLOG for Rule-Based Software Development

Abstract. Modern software often relies on the modular combination of several software subsystems, for instance rule-based subsystems for decision support, verification or knowledge management. Different software libraries in potentially different programming languages have to work together in just a single application. Even more complex is the case when different programming paradigms are combined. Such a diversification of programming languages and modules in just a single software application can only be mastered by smooth integration techniques that retain the power of different programming paradigms. Unfortunately, for the popular object-oriented programming language JAVA and the common logic programming language PROLOG occurring interoperability problems still are not solved sufficiently. To overcome various external and internal issues of former approaches we propose an intuitive and portable Connector Architecture for PROLOG and JAVA (CAPJA). A concise, extensible and independent communication layer with a pluggable interface system allows for a seamless integration of PROLOG programs in JAVA. Compared to former approaches we could reduce the code for the mere communication to a minimum. Several case studies with different PROLOG systems document not only the portability but the overall applicability of our approach