Domain-specific languages in Prolog for declarative expert knowledge in rules and ontologies

Declarative if–then rules have proven very useful in many applications of expert sys- tems. They can be managed in deductive databases and evaluated using the well-known forward-chaining approach. For domain-experts, however, the syntax of rules becomes complicated quickly, and already many different knowledge representation formalisms ex- ist. Expert knowledge is often acquired in story form using interviews. In this paper, we discuss its representation by defining domain-specific languages (Dsls) for declarative ex- pert rules. They can be embedded in Prolog systems in internal Dsls using term expan- sion and as external Dsls using definite clause grammars and quasi-quotations – for more sophisticated syntaxes. Based on the declarative rules and the integration with the Prolog-based deductive database system DDbase, multiple rules acquired in practical case studies can be combined, compared, graphically analysed by domain-experts, and evaluated, resulting in an extensi- ble system for expert knowledge. As a result, the actual modeling Dsl becomes executable; the declarative forward-chaining evaluation of deductive databases can be understood by the domain experts. Our Dsl for rules can be further improved by integrating ontologies and rule annotations

Alexa, How Can I Reason with Prolog?

As with Amazon\u27s Echo and its conversational agent Alexa, smart voice-controlled devices become ever more present in daily life, and many different applications can be integrated into this platform. In this paper, we present a framework that eases the development of skills in Prolog. As Prolog has a long history in natural language processing, we may integrate well-established techniques, such as reasoning about knowledge with Attempto Controlled English, instead of depending on example phrases and pre-defined slots

Definite Clause Grammars with Parse Trees: Extension for Prolog

Definite Clause Grammars (DCGs) are a convenient way to specify possibly non-context-free grammars for natural and formal languages. They can be used to progressively build a parse tree as grammar rules are applied by providing an extra argument in the DCG rule\u27s head. In the simplest way, this is a structure that contains the name of the used nonterminal. This extension of a DCG has been proposed for natural language processing in the past and can be done automatically in Prolog using term expansion. We extend this approach by a meta-nonterminal to specify optional and sequences of nonterminals, as these structures are common in grammars for formal, domain-specific languages. We specify a term expansion that represents these sequences as lists while preserving the grammar\u27s ability to be used both for parsing and serialising, i.e. to create a parse tree by a given source code and vice-versa. We show that this mechanism can be used to lift grammars specified in extended Backus-Naur form (EBNF) to generate parse trees. As a case study, we present a parser for the Prolog programming language itself based only on the grammars given in the ISO Prolog standard which produces corresponding parse trees

Declarative Rules for Annotated Expert Knowledge in Change Management

In this paper, we use declarative and domain-specific languages for representing expert knowledge in the field of change management in organisational psychology. Expert rules obtained in practical case studies are represented as declarative rules in a deductive database. The expert rules are annotated by information describing their provenance and confidence. Additional provenance information for the whole - or parts of the - rule base can be given by ontologies. Deductive databases allow for declaratively defining the semantics of the expert knowledge with rules; the evaluation of the rules can be optimised and the inference mechanisms could be changed, since they are specified in an abstract way. As the logical syntax of rules had been a problem in previous applications of deductive databases, we use specially designed domain-specific languages to make the rule syntax easier for non-programmers. The semantics of the whole knowledge base is declarative. The rules are written declaratively in an extension datalogs of the well-known deductive database language datalog on the data level, and additional datalogs rules can configure the processing of the annotated rules and the ontologies

Definition und Implementierung domänenspezifischer Sprachen mit Prolog

The landscape of today’s programming languages is manifold. With the diversity of applications, the difficulty of adequately addressing and specifying the used programs increases. This often leads to newly designed and implemented domain-specific languages. They enable domain experts to express knowledge in their preferred format, resulting in more readable and concise programs. Due to its flexible and declarative syntax without reserved keywords, the logic programming language Prolog is particularly suitable for defining and embedding domain-specific languages. This thesis addresses the questions and challenges that arise when integrating domain-specific languages into Prolog. We compare the two approaches to define them either externally or internally, and provide assisting tools for each. The grammar of a formal language is usually defined in the extended Backus–Naur form. In this work, we handle this formalism as a domain-specific language in Prolog, and define term expansions that allow to translate it into equivalent definite clause grammars. We present the package library(dcg4pt) for SWI-Prolog, which enriches them by an additional argument to automatically process the term’s corresponding parse tree. To simplify the work with definite clause grammars, we visualise their application by a web-based tracer. The external integration of domain-specific languages requires the programmer to keep the grammar, parser, and interpreter in sync. In many cases, domain-specific languages can instead be directly embedded into Prolog by providing appropriate operator definitions. In addition, we propose syntactic extensions for Prolog to expand its expressiveness, for instance to state logic formulas with their connectives verbatim. This allows to use all tools that were originally written for Prolog, for instance code linters and editors with syntax highlighting. We present the package library(plammar), a standard-compliant parser for Prolog source code, written in Prolog. It is able to automatically infer from example sentences the required operator definitions with their classes and precedences as well as the required Prolog language extensions. As a result, we can automatically answer the question: Is it possible to model these example sentences as valid Prolog clauses, and how? We discuss and apply the two approaches to internal and external integrations for several domain-specific languages, namely the extended Backus–Naur form, GraphQL, XPath, and a controlled natural language to represent expert rules in if-then form. The created toolchain with library(dcg4pt) and library(plammar) yields new application opportunities for static Prolog source code analysis, which we also present.Die Landschaft der heutigen Programmiersprachen ist vielfältig. Mit ihren unterschiedlichen Anwendungsbereichen steigt zugleich die Schwierigkeit, die eingesetzten Programme adäquat anzusprechen und zu spezifizieren. Immer häufiger werden hierfür domänenspezifische Sprachen entworfen und implementiert. Sie ermöglichen Domänenexperten, Wissen in ihrem bevorzugten Format auszudrücken, was zu lesbareren Programmen führt. Durch ihre flexible und deklarative Syntax ohne vorbelegte Schlüsselwörter ist die logische Programmsprache Prolog besonders geeignet, um domänenspezifische Sprachen zu definieren und einzubetten. Diese Arbeit befasst sich mit den Fragen und Herausforderungen, die sich bei der Integration von domänenspezifischen Sprachen in Prolog ergeben. Wir vergleichen die zwei Ansätze, sie entweder extern oder intern zu definieren, und stellen jeweils Hilfsmittel zur Verfügung. Die Grammatik einer formalen Sprache wird häufig in der erweiterten Backus–Naur–Form definiert. Diesen Formalismus behandeln wir in dieser Arbeit als eine domänenspezifische Sprache in Prolog und definieren Termexpansionen, die es erlauben, ihn in äquivalente Definite Clause Grammars für Prolog zu übersetzen. Durch das Modul library(dcg4pt) werden sie um ein zusätzliches Argument erweitert, das den Syntaxbaum eines Terms automatisch erzeugt. Um die Arbeit mit Definite Clause Grammars zu erleichtern, visualisieren wir ihre Anwendung in einem webbasierten Tracer. Meist können domänenspezifische Sprachen jedoch auch mittels passender Operatordefinitionen direkt in Prolog eingebettet werden. Dies ermöglicht die Verwendung aller Werkzeuge, die ursprünglich für Prolog geschrieben wurden, z.B. zum Code-Linting und Syntax-Highlighting. In dieser Arbeit stellen wir den standardkonformen Prolog-Parser library(plammar) vor. Er ist in Prolog geschrieben und in der Lage, aus Beispielsätzen automatisch die erforderlichen Operatoren mit ihren Klassen und Präzedenzen abzuleiten. Um die Ausdruckskraft von Prolog noch zu erweitern, schlagen wir Ergänzungen zum ISO Standard vor. Sie erlauben es, weitere Sprachen direkt einzubinden, und werden ebenfalls von library(plammar) identifiziert. So ist es bspw. möglich, logische Formeln direkt mit den bekannten Symbolen für Konjunktion, Disjunktion, usw. als Prolog-Programme anzugeben. Beide Ansätze der internen und externen Integration werden für mehrere domänen-spezifische Sprachen diskutiert und beispielhaft für GraphQL, XPath, die erweiterte Backus–Naur–Form sowie Expertenregeln in Wenn–Dann–Form umgesetzt. Die vorgestellten Werkzeuge um library(dcg4pt) und library(plammar) ergeben zudem neue Anwendungsmöglichkeiten auch für die statische Quellcodeanalyse von Prolog-Programmen

Implementing GraphQL as a Query Language for Deductive Databases in SWI-Prolog Using DCGs, Quasi Quotations, and Dicts

The methods to access large relational databases in a distributed system are well established: the relational query language SQL often serves as a language for data access and manipulation, and in addition public interfaces are exposed using communication protocols like REST. Similarly to REST, GraphQL is the query protocol of an application layer developed by Facebook. It provides a unified interface between the client and the server for data fetching and manipulation. Using GraphQL's type system, it is possible to specify data handling of various sources and to combine, e.g., relational with NoSQL databases. In contrast to REST, GraphQL provides a single API endpoint and supports flexible queries over linked data. GraphQL can also be used as an interface for deductive databases. In this paper, we give an introduction of GraphQL and a comparison to REST. Using language features recently added to SWI-Prolog 7, we have developed the Prolog library GraphQL.pl, which implements the GraphQL type system and query syntax as a domain-specific language with the help of definite clause grammars (DCG), quasi quotations, and dicts. Using our library, the type system created for a deductive database can be validated, while the query system provides a unified interface for data access and introspection

Modellierung von Handlungswissen aus fragmentiertem und heterogenem Rohdatenmaterial durch inkrementelle Verfeinerung in einem Regelbanksystem

(VLID)274823