DOCSLIB.ORG

Symbolic Analysis and Atomistic Model As a Basis for a Program Comprehension Methodology

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Symbolic Analysis and Atomistic Model As a Basis for a Program Comprehension Methodology JYVÄSKYLÄ STUDIES IN COMPUTING 90 Erkki Laitila Symbolic Analysis and Atomistic Model as a Basis for a Program Comprehension Methodology JYVÄSKYLÄN YLIOPISTO JYVÄSKYLÄ STUDIES IN COMPUTING 90 Erkki Laitila Symbolic Analysis and Atomistic Model as a Basis for a Program Comprehension Methodology Esitetään Jyväskylän yliopiston informaatioteknologian tiedekunnan suostumuksella julkisesti tarkastettavaksi yliopiston Agora-rakennuksessa (Ag Aud. 3) huhtikuun 26. päivänä 2008 kello 12. Academic dissertation to be publicly discussed, by permission of the Faculty of Information Technology of the University of Jyväskylä, in the Building Agora (Ag Aud. 3), on April 26, 2008 at 12 o'clock noon. UNIVERSITY OF JYVÄSKYLÄ JYVÄSKYLÄ 2008 Symbolic Analysis and Atomistic Model as a Basis for a Program Comprehension Methodology JYVÄSKYLÄ STUDIES IN COMPUTING 90 Erkki Laitila Symbolic Analysis and Atomistic Model as a Basis for a Program Comprehension Methodology UNIVERSITY OF JYVÄSKYLÄ JYVÄSKYLÄ 2008 Editors Tommi Kärkkäinen Department of Mathematical Information Technology, University of Jyväskylä Irene Ylönen, Marja-Leena Tynkkynen Publishing Unit, University Library of Jyväskylä Cover picture by Erkki Laitila URN:ISBN:978-951-39-3252-7 ISBN 978-951-39-3252-7 (PDF) ISBN 978-951-39-2908-4 (nid.) ISSN 1456-5390 Copyright ©2008 , by University of Jyväskylä Jyväskylä University Printing House, Jyväskylä 2008 3 ABSTRACT Laitila, Erkki Symbolic Analysis and Atomistic Model as a Basis for a Program Comprehension Methodology Jyväskylä: University of Jyväskylä, 2008, 326 p. (Jyväskylä Studies in Computing, ISSN 1456-5390; 90) ISBN 978-951-39-3252-7 (PDF), 978-951-39-2908-4 (nid.) Finnish summary Diss. Research on program comprehension (PC) is very important, because the amount of source code in mission-critical applications is increasing world-wide. Software maintenance takes more than one half of all software development time and the effort to understand code about a half of this. Although of great importance, research on program comprehension is not yet very advanced. Notwithstanding with its many excellent qualities, modern object-oriented code is harder to understand and more difficult to analyze than former procedural languages due to encapsulation and object bindings. As a solution for this problem we propose an information flow structure with four stages to help us in systematically obtaining new knowledge from the code. The first stage consists of loading the program through GrammarWare into a symbolic form to function as a construction for the model, as the second stage, which we call here ModelWare. In our research we wanted to find the smallest possible structure that could be used for modeling. This gave us the idea of an "atom" in the source code. The idea was then implemented as a so-called hybrid object, combining, in an ideal manner, object based abstraction and expressiveness of a logic language. As a consequence, semantics and associations could be presented in a symbolic form. The third stage, code simulation based on SimulationWare enables symbolic analysis, which brings to light a program simulation functionality that is comparable with dynamic analysis. The last stage in our methodology, KnowledgeWare, is aimed for collecting knowledge: the user constructs, stage by stage, the most suitable representations for the current tasks, which include code inspection, error detection and verification of current operations. The methodology is programmed with Visual Prolog and implemented in our JavaMaster tool, which enables the handling of Java code in accordance with the main stages. The formalism of the resulting implementation architecture combines the main functions in program development: reverse engineering for maintenance, and forward engineering for design of new code. Keywords: software maintenance, program comprehension, reverse engineering, grammars and automata, model theory, knowledge capture. 4 Author’s address Laitila, Erkki Department of Mathematical Information Technology University of Jyväskylä, Finland P.O. Box 35 (Agora), 40014 University of Jyväskylä [email protected] Supervisors Neittaanmäki, Pekka Department of Mathematical Information Technology University of Jyväskylä, Finland Kärkkäinen, Tommi Department of Mathematical Information Technology University of Jyväskylä, Finland Koskinen, Jussi Department of Computer Science and Information Systems University of Jyväskylä, Finland Reviewers Lahdelma, Risto Department of Information Technology University of Turku, Finland Leiss, Ernst L. University of Houston, USA Opponents Sajaniemi, Jorma University of Joensuu, Finland Seppänen, Veikko University of Oulu, Finland ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The primary motivation for this work has its origins in the practical problems that I had come across in programming. For the past two decades I have been able to dedicate my company working hours both for implementing industrial Prolog applications and for studying interesting phenomena in artificial intelligence. I thank my wife, Maritta, for allowing me this rather flexible life- style, which finally led to this contribution. My aspiration towards program comprehension is due to my background both as a practitioner and an entrepreneur. My participation (2001-2002) in an educational program sponsored by Tekes aimed for Finnish software entrepreneurs in the USA allowed me to define, for this research, the most promising pragmatic stance in software reverse engineering, where static analysis and dynamic analysis are the current paradigms. During the re-orientation, Visual Prolog has been my secret weapon, the means to practice computer-aided invention and to implement prototypes and applications. My thanks for this excellent product with which one can create formalisms, such as hybrid-object models, go to Leo Jensen and his colleques in PDC. Of the topic related conversations that I had, the most pragmatic were those with Tuomo Tuomikoski and Prof. Veikko Seppänen from Elektrobit Ltd. My heartfelt thanks to my principal supervisor, Prof. Pekka Neittaanmäki for organizing the research work since 2004 when I began to update my initial knowledge as a computer engineer in order to obtain a PhD degree. I would like to express my gratitude to the supervisors for reviewing the most critical chapters. It surely has been a challenging task to assimilate all my proposals - I extended the scope no less than three times. Being a proposal for a new paradigm, symbolic code analysis also met criticism. Doubts were cast on the workings of software atom and on whether the Turing machine model would be relevant in this work. It was encouraging when Emeritus Prof. Aarni Perko voluntarily evaluated the thesis and wrote the first positive report about it. Further positive arguments came from Prof. Ernst Leiss, who saw, in my inclination towards reaching a comprehensive understanding instead of further specialization, a virtue, not a burden. To him, I therefore wish to express my sincere gratitude. I would like to thank Prof. Risto Lahdelma, a specialist in Prolog and software, for several suggestions during the long examination process, which improved the readability. I would like to thank COMAS (Jyväskylä Graduate School in Computing and Mathematical Sciences) for providing the financial means for my investigation. I would also like to thank the Ellen and Artturi Nyyssönen Foundation for their contribution. During the research Steve Legrand has helped me in completing the text. I would like to thank Steve for many interesting conversations leading to a conference trip as far as Mexico, and for nine checked articles. The quality must 6 have been good, because all of my latest six articles have been accepted for international conferences. Finally, I want to salute my children, who patiently supported my efforts during lonely times when the whole software formalism loomed over my work like a huge Gordian knot. My special thanks to Ville, who has kept me informed about the best practices in Java programming. In Jyväskylä, Nenäinniemi 7.4.2008 Erkki Laitila 7 FIGURES FIGURE0H 1 Program comprehension data flow...................................................... 22368H FIGURE1H 2 Reverse engineering, a horse shoe diagram (Tichelaar, 2001)......... 30369H FIGURE2H 3 Main levels of the methodology. .......................................................... 55370H FIGURE3H 4 The main approaches for the program comprehension tool. ........... 58371H FIGURE4H 5 Program comprehension as automata and transformations. ........... 63372H FIGURE5H 6 Definition of a computable function by a register machine. ............ 67373H FIGURE6H 7 The research as a three machine model............................................... 72374H FIGURE7H 8 The research approach and the corresponding theories................... 85375H FIGURE8H 9 Defining the Symbolic language........................................................... 89376H FIGURE9H 10 Direct, semantic translation................................................................. 105377H FIGURE10H 11 Summary of GrammarWare............................................................... 115378H FIGURE11H 12 Atomistic hybrid object, AHO, the architecture............................... 120379H FIGURE12H 13 Class hierarchy of the symbolic atom. ............................................... 120380H FIGURE13H 14 Atomistic metaphor for the Java main method................................ 122381H FIGURE14H 15 The semantics of the symbolic atom. ................................................
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Portability of Prolog Programs: Theory and Case-Studies
    Portability of Prolog programs: theory and case-studies Jan Wielemaker1 and V´ıtorSantos Costa2 1 VU University Amsterdam, The Netherlands, [email protected] 2 DCC-FCUP & CRACS-INESC Porto LA Universidade do Porto, Portugal [email protected] Abstract. (Non-)portability of Prolog programs is widely considered as an important factor in the lack of acceptance of the language. Since 1995, the core of the language is covered by the ISO standard 13211-1. Since 2007, YAP and SWI-Prolog have established a basic compatibility framework. This article describes and evaluates this framework. The aim of the framework is running the same code on both systems rather than migrating an application. We show that today, the portability within the family of Edinburgh/Quintus derived Prolog implementations is good enough to allow for maintaining portable real-world applications. 1 Introduction Prolog is an old language with a long history, and its user community has seen a large number of implementations that evolved largely independently. This sit- uation is totally different from more recent languages, e.g, Java, Python or Perl. These language either have a single implementation (Python, Perl) or are con- trolled centrally (a language can only be called Java if it satisfies certain stan- dards [9]). The Prolog world knows dialects that are radically different, even with different syntax and different semantics (e.g., Visual Prolog [11]). Arguably, this is a handicap for the language because every publically available significant piece of code must be carefully examined for portability issues before it can be applied. As an anecdotal example, answers to questions on comp.lang.prolog typically include \on Prolog XYZ, this can be done using .
    [Show full text]
  • Prolog Basics
    Prolog basics A little background on Prolog Facts and queries "Can you prove it?" Atoms and numbers Predicates, terms, and structures Fact/query mismatches More queries Operators are structures Alternative representations Unification Query execution CSc 372, Fall 2006 Prolog, Slide 1 W. H. Mitchell ([email protected]) A little background on Prolog The name comes from "programming in logic". Developed at the University of Marseilles (France) in 1972. First implementation was in FORTRAN and written by Alain Colmeraurer. Originally intended as a tool for working with natural languages. Achieved great popularity in Europe in the late 1970s. Was picked by Japan in 1981 as a core technology for their "fifth generation" project. Prolog is a commercially successful language. Many companies have made a business of supplying Prolog implementations, Prolog consulting, and/or applications in Prolog. There are many free implementations of Prolog available. We'll be using SWI-Prolog. CSc 372, Fall 2006 Prolog, Slide 2 W. H. Mitchell ([email protected]) Facts and queries A Prolog program is a collection of facts, rules, and queries. We'll talk about facts first. Here is a small collection of Prolog facts: % cat foods.pl food('apple'). food('broccoli'). food('carrot'). food('lettuce'). food('rice'). These facts enumerate some things that are food. We might read them in English like this: "An apple is food", "Broccoli is food", etc. A fact represents a piece of knowledge that the Prolog programmer deems to be useful. The name food was chosen by the programmer. One alternative is edible('apple'). 'apple' is an example of an atom.
    [Show full text]
  • Ada User Journal
    ADA Volume 23 USER Number 3 JOURNAL September 2002 Contents Page Editorial Policy for Ada User Journal 122 Editorial 123 News 125 Conference Calendar 160 Forthcoming Events 167 Articles Michael Kersten, Joerg Matthes, Christian Fouda Manga, Stephan Zipser and Hubert B. Keller “Customizing UML for the Development of Distributed Reactive Systems and Ada 95 Code Generation” 175 Ada-Europe 2002 Sponsors 184 Ada-Europe Associate Members (National Ada Organizations) Inside Back Cover Ada User Journal Volume 23, Number 3, September 2002 122 Editorial Policy for Ada User Journal Publication Original Papers Commentaries Ada User Journal – The Journal for the Manuscripts should be submitted in We publish commentaries on Ada and international Ada Community – is accordance with the submission software engineering topics. These published by Ada-Europe. It appears guidelines (below). may represent the views either of four times a year, on the last days of individuals or of organisations. Such March, June, September and All original technical contributions are articles can be of any length – December. Copy date is the first of the submitted to refereeing by at least two inclusion is at the discretion of the month of publication. people. Names of referees will be kept Editor. confidential, but their comments will Opinions expressed within the Ada Aims be relayed to the authors at the User Journal do not necessarily discretion of the Editor. Ada User Journal aims to inform represent the views of the Editor, Ada- readers of developments in the Ada The first named author will receive a Europe or its directors. programming language and its use, complimentary copy of the issue of the general Ada-related software Journal in which their paper appears.
    [Show full text]
  • Prolog: Beyond the Text & Summary
    Prolog: Beyond the text & Summary Artificial Intelligence Programming in Prolog Lecturer: Tim Smith Lecture 18 29/11/04 29/11/04 AIPP Lecture 18: Beyond the Text & Summary 1 Contents • Prolog: Beyond the text – Tcl/tk – Java and prolog – Visual Prolog ~ COGENT * Will not be examined on ‘Beyond the text’. It presents advanced Prolog details beyond the specification of this course*. • Exam details • Lecture Summaries 29/11/04 AIPP Lecture 18: Beyond the Text & Summary 2 Creating Prolog GUIs • In AIPP we have only been using Prolog at the command line. • This makes it seem of limited use, more “retro”, compared to other languages, such as Java, which have significant graphical components. • But, Prolog does not have to be just textual! • Various techniques exists for creating Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs) for Prolog: – Tcl/tk – Jasper (Java interface) – Visual Basic (not discussed) – Visual Prologtm • Details on all of these available in the SICStus manual. http://www.sics.se/sicstus/docs/latest/html/sicstus.html/ 29/11/04 AIPP Lecture 18: Beyond the Text & Summary 3 Tcl/Tk • Tcl/Tk (“tickle/tee-kay”) – a scripting language and – toolkit for manipulating window based interfaces. • Very simple to code and quickly prototype cross- platform GUIs. • You might have come across Tcl/Tk on the HCI course. • SICStus Prolog contains a Tcl/Tk library (tcltk) which allows GUIs to be controlled and created: 1. The Prolog program loads the Tcl/Tk Prolog library, 2. creates a Tcl/Tk interpreter, and 3. sends commands to the interpreter to create a GUI. 4. The user interacts with the GUI and therefore with the underlying Prolog system.
    [Show full text]
  • Visual Prolog Classes
    Visual Prolog Version 5.x Language Tutorial (c) Copyright 1986-2001 Prolog Development Center A/S H.J. Holst Vej 3-5C, DK - 2605 Broendby, Copenhagen Denmark Copyright The documentation for this software is copyrighted, and all rights are reserved. It may not be reproduced, transmitted, stored in a retrieval system, or translated, either by electronic, mechanical or any other means, without the prior written consent of Prolog Development Center A/S. The software products described in these manuals are also copyrighted, and are licensed to the End User only for use in accordance with the End User License Agreement, which is printed on the diskette packaging. The prospective user should read this agreement carefully prior to use of the software. Visual Prolog is a registered trademark of Prolog Development Center A/S. Other brand and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders. Table of Contents Part 1 Introduction to Visual Prolog Chapter 1, Using Visual Prolog's Visual Development Environment What Needs to be Installed for This Book? ....................................................... 6 Starting the Visual Prolog's Visual Development Environment........................ 7 Creating the TestGoal Project for Running the Examples................................. 8 Opening an Editor Window ............................................................................. 11 Running and Testing a Program....................................................................... 11 Testing Language Tutorial Examples
    [Show full text]
  • Prolog Language
    Prolog Language #prolog Table of Contents About 1 Chapter 1: Getting started with Prolog Language 2 Remarks 2 Implementations 2 Examples 2 Installation or Setup 2 append/3 3 CLP(FD) Constraints 3 Database Programming 4 Hello, World 6 Hello, World in the interactive interpreter 6 Hello, World from a file 6 Chapter 2: Coding guidelines 8 Examples 8 Naming 8 Indentation 8 Order of arguments 8 Chapter 3: Constraint Logic Programming 10 Examples 10 CLP(FD) 10 CLP(Q) 10 CLP(H) 10 Chapter 4: Control structures 11 Examples 11 Disjunction (logical OR), implicit vs. explict 11 Conjunction (logical AND) 11 Cut (remove choice points) 11 Chapter 5: Data Structures 13 Examples 13 Lists 13 Pairs 13 Association lists 14 Terms 14 Terms with named fields using library(record) 14 Chapter 6: Definite Clause Grammars (DCGs) 16 Examples 16 Anything at all: `... //0` 16 Parsing with DCGs 16 Extra goals 16 Extra arguments 17 Chapter 7: Derivation trees 18 Examples 18 Proof tree 18 Chapter 8: Difference Lists 20 Introduction 20 Examples 20 Basic usage 20 Evaluate an arithmetic expression 21 Chapter 9: Error handling and exceptions 23 Examples 23 Instantiation errors 23 General points about error handling 23 Cleaning up after exceptions 23 Type and domain errors 23 Chapter 10: Extra-logical Predicates 25 Examples 25 Predicates with side effects 25 Meta-logical predicates 25 All-solutions predicates 25 !/0 and related predicates 25 Chapter 11: Higher-Order Programming 27 Examples 27 call/N predicates 27 maplist/[2,3] 27 Meta-call 27 foldl/4 27 Call a list of goals
    [Show full text]
  • Detailed Syllabus
    SEMESTER 1 15XW11 CALCULUS AND ITS APPLICATIONS 3 2 0 4 BASIC CONCEPTS: Functions – Graphs, limit, continuity, jump discontinuity, piecewise continuity, periodic, differentiable, integrable, absolutely integrable functions. Fundamental theorem of calculus (statement only). Sequences – increasing, decreasing, bounded, function limit properties (No Proof). Series – convergence and divergence – alternating series test, absolute convergence – ratio test, power series. (7+5) FOURIER SERIES : Periodic waveforms, even and odd functions, orthogonality relations, Fourier series - Dirchlet’s conditions, statement of Fourier Theorem, Fourier Co-effecients – change of scale , Half range series, Parseval’s theorem – average power of a signal, RMS value, applications – frequency response of a linear system. (8+5) FUNCTIONS OF TWO VARIABLES: Introduction- partial derivative and its geometrical interpretation. Taylor series about a point - Maxima, minima - Constrained maxima and minima – Lagrange multiplier method. (7+5) INTEGRAL CALCULUS: Evaluation of multiple integrals - Change the order of integration - Application of multiple integrals to find area and volume - Beta and Gamma Integrals - Evaluation of definite integrals in terms of Beta and Gamma functions. (8+5) ORDINARY DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS OF FIRST ORDER: Modeling- Geometrical meaning- Exact differential equations, Integrating factors- linear differential equations, Bernouli equations - Applications to linear systems. (7+5) LINEAR DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS OF SECOND AND HIGHER ORDER: Homogeneous linear equations of second order and higher order equations with constant coefficients. Euler-Cauchy equation, Non-homogeneous equations, Solution by variation of parameter - Applications to linear systems. (8+5) Total L:45+T:30 = 75 TEXT BOOKS : 1. Erwin Kreyszig, “Advanced Engineering Mathematics”, John Wiley, 2014. 2. Maurice D. Weir, Joel Hass, Frank R. Giordano, “Thomas’ Calculus”, Pearson, 2013.
    [Show full text]
  • PL Category: Logic Pls Introduction to Prolog
    PL Category: Logic PLs Introduction to Prolog CS F331 Programming Languages CSCE A331 Programming Language Concepts Lecture Slides Friday, April 19, 2019 Glenn G. Chappell Department of Computer Science University of Alaska Fairbanks [email protected] © 2017–2019 Glenn G. Chappell Review PL Feature: Execution II [1/6] Recall. When a program is executed, the computations it specifies actually occur. In all cases, something drives the execution. § There is some task the computer is attempting to perform. § There is some strategy for carrying out the execution. Both of these can vary significantly from one programming language to another. 19 Apr 2019 CS F331 / CSCE A331 Spring 2019 2 Review PL Feature: Execution II [2/6] What task drives the execution of a Lua program? Answer. The code at global scope in a source file is executed. Strategy. The computer is given a sequence of commands. It carries out each, in order, performing the action that each specifies. If a command specifies that another function is to be called, then this becomes a subtask to be completed as part of the main task. C++, Java, and Forth—imperative PLs—are similar. 19 Apr 2019 CS F331 / CSCE A331 Spring 2019 3 Review PL Feature: Execution II [3/6] Scheme code does not consist of commands to be carried out, but rather expressions to be evaluated. Scheme is a more declarative PL than those mentioned earlier. We do not tell the computer what to do, but what the values of things are. What drives Scheme execution (in the REPL) is the evaluation of an expression, which generally results in a procedure call.
    [Show full text]
  • Logic Programming with Prolog Max Bramer
    Logic Programming with Prolog Max Bramer Logic Programming with Prolog Max Bramer, BSc, PhD, CEng, FBCS, FIEE, FRSA, ILTM Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering University of Portsmouth United Kingdom British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Control Number: 2005923526 Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication may be repro- duced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms of licenses issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside those terms should be sent to the publishers. ISBN-10: 1-85233-938-1 ISBN-13: 978-1852-33938-8 Springer Science+Business Media springeronline.com © Max Bramer 2005 The use of registered names, trademarks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant laws and regula- tions and therefore free for general use. The publisher makes no representation, express or implied, with regard to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and cannot accept any legal responsibility or liability for any errors or omissions that may be made. Printed in the United States of America 34-543210 Printed on acid-free paper SPIN 11344445 Introduction Logic Programming is the name given to a distinctive style of programming, very different from that of conventional programming languages such as C++ and Java.
    [Show full text]
  • Translation of Visual Prolog Programs Into UML Models
    Translation of Visual Prolog programs into UML models Ivan Andrianov System Programming Department, Computational Mathematics and Cybernetics Faculty, Moscow State University [email protected] 1 Introduction Modification and support of systems written in logical programming languages is a difficult task because of the lack of software engineering tools for logical programs. Currently there are a lot of software engineering tools for object-oriented programs. Therefore the translation of a logical program into an object model task is really urgent. The task solution allows us to get models corresponding to logical programs. For these object models we can use object-oriented software engineering tools in full, e.g., modify object models and generate the object-oriented language code from them. 1990s were the time of the active research on the logical programs analysis and modification topic. In that time algorithms resolving the predicate argument type inference (e.g., GAIA [1]) and the predicate mode inference (e.g., MDDAA [2]) problems were developed for standard Prolog programs. These algorithms were used for Prolog interpreter and compiler optimization purposes. In this article logical programs are analyzed for other purposes. The task is a transition from logical programs terms to object models terms. The 1990s algorithms can't applied for the task. In this article we deal with logical programs written in the Visual Prolog [3] language. Consider features of Visual Prolog differing it from standard Prolog dialects. 1 domains : 2 department type = financial , logistics , technical. 3 date = d(integer , integer , integer). 4 person = p(string , date). 5 department = dep(string , department type ) .
    [Show full text]
  • Frequently Asked Questions - Comp.Lang.Prolog
    Frequently Asked Questions - comp.lang.prolog Markus Triska (Mar. 2 2007 - ... ) Remko Troncon (Jan. 6 2002 - Mar. 2 2007) Dirk-Jan Faber (Feb. 1 1999 - Jan. 6 2002) Jamie Andrews (Aug 26 1992 - Oct. 16 1997) General Information: This article contains the answers to some Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) often seen in news://comp.lang.prolog/. It is posted (twice a month, currently on the 2nd and 16th) to help reduce volume in this newsgroup and to provide hard-to-find information of general interest. The World Wide Web URL for this FAQ is: http://www.logic.at/prolog/faq/ Please send questions about the FAQ and updates to <[email protected]>. 1. What is the Association for Logic Programming? To keep up with the current state of logic programming technology, readers can join the Association for Logic Programming (ALP) and receive their Newsletter. For details on how to join or send in contributions, check http://www.cs.nmsu.edu/ALP/ or contact Sandro Etalle <[email protected]> The Prolog Resource Guide (v0.6) was printed in issue 5/1 of the Newsletter (Feb. 1992). This lists information concerning Prolog Archives, Books, Suppliers, etc. It is now maintained by Mark Kantrowitz (<[email protected]>), and used to be posted periodically to news://comp.lang.prolog. 2. Where can I get a free Prolog for system X (PC, Mac, Unix or other)? The following are anonymous-FTP sites for free Prologs (or related languages) which are either in the public domain or are "copy-lefted" (permitted to be copied with some restrictions on commercial use).
    [Show full text]
  • 2P-Kt: a Kotlin-Based, Multi-Platform Framework for Symbolic AI
    ALMA MATER STUDIORUM { UNIVERSITA` DI BOLOGNA CAMPUS DI CESENA Scuola di Ingegneria e Architettura Corso di Laurea Magistrale in Ingegneria e Scienze Informatiche 2p-kt: A Kotlin-based, Multi-Platform Framework for Symbolic AI Tesi di laurea magistrale Relatore Presentata da Prof. ANDREA OMICINI ENRICO SIBONI Co-relatore Dott. GIOVANNI CIATTO Terza Sessione di Laurea Anno Accademico 2018-2019 2 Abstract Today complex software systems are typically built as aggregates of hetero- geneous components, where symbolic AI may effectively help facing key issues such as intelligence of components and management of interaction. However, most solutions for symbolic manipulation are currently either proof of concept imple- mentations or full-fledged monolithic runtimes, mostly targeting a single platform or a specific problem. Among the many, two decades ago, the tuProlog engine proposed a flexible and modular architecture on top of a portable platform { namely, the JVM { which should have overcome the aforementioned problems. Sadly, the technology of the time forced some design choices which are nowadays limiting its development and its porting on other platforms { critical for modern AI {, such as JavaScript (JS) or iOS. For such reasons in this thesis we propose (the design and development of) 2p-kt, an object-oriented, modular engine for symbolic manipulation written in pure Kotlin { thus supporting compilation on several platforms, there including JVM, and JS {, coming with a natural support for Prolog-like SLD resolution but virtually open to other resolution strategies. 2p-kt design is conceived to maximise components deployability, lightweightness, reusability and configurability, while minimising their mutability, and keeping its architecture open to the injection of new Prolog libraries or resolution strategies.
    [Show full text]