Abstract
We provide a denotational semantics for first-order logic that captures the two-level view of the computation process typical for constraint programming. At one level we have the usual program execution. At the other level an automatic maintenance of the constraint store takes place.
We prove that the resulting semantics is sound with respect to the truth definition. By instantiating it by specific forms of constraint management policies we obtain several sound evaluation policies of first-order formulas. This semantics can also be used a basis for sound implementation of constraint maintenance in presence of block declarations and conditionals.
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
R. Apt and A. Schaerf. The Alma project, or how first-order logic can help us in imperative programming. In E.-R. Olderog and B. Steffen, editors, Correct System Design, Lecture Notes in Computer Science 1710, pages 89–113, 1999.
K.R. Apt. A denotational semantics for first-order logic. In Proc. of the computational logic conference (CL2000), Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence 1861, pages 53–69. Springer Verlag, 2000.
K.R. Apt and M.A. Bezem. Formulas as programs. In K.R. Apt, V.W. Marek, M. Truszcyński, and D.S. Warren, editors, The Logic Programming Paradigm: A 25 Year Perspective, pages 75–107, 1999.
K.R. Apt, J. Brunekreef, V. Partington, and A. Schaerf. Alma-0: An imperative language that supports declarative programming. ACM Toplas, 20(5):1014–1066, 1998.
F.S. De Boer, M. Gabbrielli, E. Marchiori, and C. Palamidessi. Proving concurrent constraint programs correct. In ACM Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems, volume 19(5), pages 685–725, 1997.
A. Colmerauer. Equations and inequations on finite and infinite trees. In John Lloyd, editor, Proc. of International Conference of Fifth Generation Computer Systems (FGCS’84), pages 85–99. OHMSHA Ltd. Tokyo and North-Holland, 1984.
F.S. de Boer, A. Di Pierro, and C. Palamidessi. Nondeterminism and infinite computations in constraint programming. Theoretical Computer Science, 151(1):37–78, 1995.
F. Fages, P. Ruet, and S. Soliman. Linear concurrent constraint programming: Operational and phase semantics. Information and Computation, 165(1):14–41, 2001.
J. Jaffar and J.M. Maher. Constraint logic programming: a survey. Journal of Logic Programming, 19/20, 1994.
J. Jaffar, J.M. Maher, K. Marriott, and P. Stuckey. The semantics of constraint logic programs. Journal of Logic Programming, 37(1):1–46, 1998.
J.W. Lloyd and R.W. Topor. Making Prolog more expressive. Journal of Logic Programming, 1:225–240, 1984.
C. Palamidessi, F.S. de Boer, and A. Di Pierro. An algebraic perspective of constraint logic programming. Journal of Logic and Computation, 7, 1997.
V. A. Saraswat, M. Rinard, and P. Panangaden. Semantic foundations of concurrent constraint programming. In Conference Record of the Eighteenth Annual ACM Symposium on Principles of Programming Languages, pages 333–352, Orlando, Florida, 1991.
Vijay Saraswat. Concurrent Constraint Programming. MIT Press, 1993.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2002 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Apt, K.R., Vermeulen, C.F.M. (2002). First-Order Logic as a Constraint Programming Language. In: Baaz, M., Voronkov, A. (eds) Logic for Programming, Artificial Intelligence, and Reasoning. LPAR 2002. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 2514. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-36078-6_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-36078-6_2
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-00010-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-36078-0
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive