Abstract
In this paper, we present a new language construct, called Action Rules (AR), and describe its application to the implementation of various constraint propagators and interactive graphical user interfaces. An action rule specifies a pattern for agents, an event pattern for events that can activate the agents, and an action that the agents carry out when activated. AR combines the goal-oriented execution model of logic programming with the event-driven execution model. This hybrid execution model facilitates programming interactions in applications such as constraint propagators and interactive user interfaces. A propagator for a constraint is an agent that maintains the consistency of the constraint and is activated by updates to the domain variables in the constraint. As graphics programming is concerned, an agent is an event handler that handles stimuli from the users. AR has been incorporated into B-Prolog (www.probp.com). It has been successfully employed in the implementation of several efficient constraint solvers [24],[26] and in the CGLIB, a high-level constraint-based graphics library [25].
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Zhou, NF. (2003). Action Rules for Programming Constraint Propagators and Interactive User Interfaces. In: Bartenstein, O., Geske, U., Hannebauer, M., Yoshie, O. (eds) Web Knowledge Management and Decision Support. INAP 2001. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 2543. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-36524-9_16
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