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The functional logic language BABEL and its implementation on a graph machine

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Abstract

The first-order, untyped, functional logic language Babel is extended by polymorphic types and higher order functios. A sophisticated incompatibility check which is used to guarantee nonambiguity of BABEL programs is presented. For the implementation of the language, unification and backtracking are integrated in a programmed (functional) graph reduction machine. The implementation of this machine has been used for a comparison between Babel and PROLOG based on the runtimes of some example programs.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Informatik II, RWTH Aachen, D-52056, Aachen, Germany

    Herbert Kuchen

  2. Fachgebiet Informatik, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Lahnberge, D-35032, Marburg, Germany

    Rita Loogen

  3. Facultad de Informática, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Boadilla del Monte, 28660, Madrid, Spain

    Juan José Moreno-Navarro

  4. Departamento de Informática y Automática, Facultad de C.C. Matemáticas, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 28040, Madrid, Spain

    Mario Rodríguez-Artalejo

Authors
  1. Herbert Kuchen
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  2. Rita Loogen
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  3. Juan José Moreno-Navarro
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  4. Mario Rodríguez-Artalejo
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Herbert Kuchen.

Additional information

Herbert Kuchen, PD Dr.: He works as a lecturer for computer science at the RWTH Aachen, where he received all his degrees. He wrote his dissertation on an expression-parallel implementation of functional languages on distributed memory machines. His habilitation thesis treated the dataparallel implementation of functional languages on these machines. Besides the parallel implementation of programming languages, he is working on the design and implementation of integrated functional and logic languages. Moreover, he is interested in corresponding program analysis and optimization techniques as well as extensions of functional logic languages by e.g. constraints and higher order unification.

Rita Loogen, Prof. Dr.: Her current research interests are in the field of declarative programming languages and their implementation on parallel architectures. She is interested in the design of new declarative languages which integrate the well-known paradigms of functional and logic languages in a uniform framework. Furthermore, she takes particular interest in the analysis and implementation of such languages, especially with respect to the exploitation of parallelism and the programming of parallel systems.

Juan José Moreno-Navarro, Prof. Dr.: He became “Licenciado” (M. Sc.) degree in Mathematics in 1984 at Universidad Complutense de Madrid. He obtained his Ph.D. degree in Computer Science in 1989 from Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. He is currently Professor in Computer Science in the same university. His current research interests are in declarative programming languages (functional, logic and integrated languages as well as specification languages) and their implementation, including the enhancement of the expressivity of the languages, semantics, sequential and parallel implementations, optimization by compile-time analysis, and execution visualization.

Mario Rodríguez-Artalejo, Prof. Dr.: He received his degrees from Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM). He wrote his dissertation on applications on Ehrenfeucht-Fraisse games to model theory in 1977, and moved to research within the area of Logic in Computer Science since 1983. From 1977 to 1983 he worked as an Associate Professor at UCM. From 1986 to 1987 he was full Professor for Computer Science at Universidad Politecnica de Madrid (UPM), and since 1987 he is full Professor for Computer Science at UCM. Currently, his main research interests are in the area of declarative programming, including in particular semantics and implementation techniques for multiparadigm declarative languages, and the role of constraint solving in declarative programming.

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Kuchen, H., Loogen, R., Moreno-Navarro, J.J. et al. The functional logic language BABEL and its implementation on a graph machine. NGCO 14, 391–427 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03037211

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