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The Boolean Constraint Solver of SWI-Prolog (System Description)

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Functional and Logic Programming (FLOPS 2016)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNTCS,volume 9613))

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Abstract

We present a new constraint solver over Boolean variables, available as library(clpb) (documentation: http://eu.swi-prolog.org/man/clpb.html) in SWI-Prolog. Our solver distinguishes itself from other available CLP(\(\mathcal {B}\)) solvers by several unique features: First, it is written entirely in Prolog and is hence portable to different Prolog implementations. Second, it is the first freely available BDD-based CLP(\(\mathcal {B}\)) solver. Third, we show that new interface predicates allow us to solve new types of problems with CLP(\(\mathcal {B}\)) constraints. We also use our implementation experience to contrast features and state necessary requirements of attributed variable interfaces to optimally support CLP(\(\mathcal {B}\)) constraints in different Prolog systems. Finally, we also present some performance results and comparisons with SICStus Prolog.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The documentation of SICStus Prolog 4.3.2 contains the exact wording of current support terms of the clpb module that ships with the system: “The library module is a direct port from SICStus Prolog 3. It is not supported by SICS in any way.”.

  2. 2.

    Source: http://www.cs.otago.ac.nz/staffpriv/ok/COSC410/robdd.pl.

  3. 3.

    A Prolog DCG primer is available at http://www.metalevel.at/dcg.html.

  4. 4.

    See http://projecteuler.net for more information.

  5. 5.

    The code of all benchmarks is available at http://www.metalevel.at/clpb-bench.

  6. 6.

    The variant is freely available at http://www.metalevel.at/clpb-zdd.

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Acknowledgments

First and foremost, I thank Ulrich Neumerkel for introducing me to constraint logic programming and to testing constraint solvers. For their encouragement about CLP(\(\mathcal {B}\)), I thank Nysret Musliu and Fred Mesnard. My gratitude also goes to Jan Wielemaker for providing a robust and free Prolog system, for his fast reaction times and much appreciated support when discussing and implementing new features. I thank Mats Carlsson for the visionary CLP(\(\mathcal {B}\)) solver of SICStus Prolog and sending me a complimentary version of his system. For their supremely well-written documents about BDDs, I thank Donald Knuth and Henrik Reif Andersen. These books and papers further increased my interest in the subject and were very useful during development. I also thank the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments.

With all my heart, I thank my partner Barbara for her love.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Database and Artificial Intelligence Group, Vienna University of Technology, Vienna, Austria

    Markus Triska

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  1. Markus Triska
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Correspondence to Markus Triska .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan

    Oleg Kiselyov

  2. School of Computing, University of Kent, Canterbury, United Kingdom

    Andy King

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Triska, M. (2016). The Boolean Constraint Solver of SWI-Prolog (System Description). In: Kiselyov, O., King, A. (eds) Functional and Logic Programming. FLOPS 2016. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 9613. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-29604-3_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-29604-3_4

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

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