A Tight, Practical Integration of Relations and Functions

by Harold Boley

Overview

As in other fields, in computer science certain objects of study can be synthesized from different basic elements, in different ways, and with different resulting stabilities. In subfields such as artificial intelligence, computational logic, and programming languages various relational and functional ingredients and techniques have been tried for the synthesis of declarative programs.

This text considers the notions of relations, as found in logic programming or in relational databases, and of functions, as found in functional programming or in equational languages. We study a declarative integration which is tight, because it takes place right at the level of these notions, and which is still practical, because it preserves the advantages of the widely used relational and functional languages PROLOG and LISP. The resulting relational and functional language, RELFUN, is used here for exemplifying all integration principles.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783540666448
Publisher:	Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Publication date:	10/29/1999
Series:	Lecture Notes in Computer Science , #1712
Edition description:	1999
Pages:	176
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.17(h) x (d)

Table of Contents

An overview of the relational-functional language RELFUN.- Extended logic-plus-functional programming.- A direct semantic characterization of RELFUN.- Finite domains and exclusions as first-class citizens.- Multiple-valued Horn clauses and their WAM compilation.