Abstract
The functional programming language LML (for Logical Meta-Language) is presented. Like most trendy representatives of its category, LML is a higher-order, pattern-matched, polymorphically-typed, non-strict functional language. Its distinctive feature is the presence of a data type of theories, whose objects represent logic programs. Theories are equipped with operators for querying them, to obtain sets of answers, and combining them together in various different ways, to build more complex ones. Thus, from one perspective, LML may be viewed as yet another approach to the integration of functional and logic programming, aiming at amalgamating within a single, coherent framework the expressive power of both paradigms. From another perspective, however, LML may be viewed as a programming language for the construction of knowledge-based systems, in which chunks of knowledge are represented as logic theories. According to this perspective, the functional layer acts as a meta-level framework for the underlying logic programming component: theories are ordinary data values, which can be manipulated by suitable operators. The operators map theories into theories by acting upon their representations according to given formal semantics. This is the most novel aspect of the language, and provides mechanisms for a) the description of dynamic evolution of theories, and b) a modular approach to knowledge-based systems development. The paper presents the basic ideas underlying the design of the language, together with anexample of its use.
This work has been partially supported by ESPRIT — Basic Research Action 3012 (Compulog)
The work of this author has been partially supported by C.N.R. — Italian National Research Council.
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Brogi, A., Mancarella, P., Pedreschi, D., Turini, F. (1990). Logic programming within a functional framework. In: Deransart, P., Maluszyński, J. (eds) Programming Language Implementation and Logic Programming. PLILP 1990. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 456. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0024196
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0024196
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