Adding partial functions to Constraint Logic Programming with sets

作者：Cristia Maximiliano^*; Rossi Gianfranco; Frydman Claudia

来源：Theory and Practice of Logic Programming, 2015, 15(4-5): 651-665.

DOI：10.1017/S1471068415000290

• CLP
• {log}
• set theory
• partial functions

Partial functions are common abstractions in formal specification notations such as Z, B and Alloy. Conversely, executable programming languages usually provide little or no support for them. In this paper we propose to add partial functions as a primitive feature to a Constraint Logic Programming (CLP) language, namely {log}. Although partial functions could be programmed on top of {log}, providing them as first-class citizens adds valuable flexibility and generality to the form of set-theoretic formulas that the language can safely deal with. In particular, the paper shows how the {log} constraint solver is naturally extended in order to accommodate for the new primitive constraints dealing with partial functions. Efficiency of the new version is empirically assessed by running a number of non-trivial set-theoretical goals involving partial functions, obtained from specifications written in Z.

• 出版日期2015-7