CS Seminar: Krzysztof Apt, November 28, 2000

Speaker

Prof. Krzysztof Apt,
Centre for Mathematics and Computer Science, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and
Department of Mathematics and Computer Sciences, University of Amsterdam.

Date and Time

Monday, November 28, 2000 at 15:00

Place

Sala Riunioni,
Dipartimento di Matematica, Università di Parma, Via D'Azeglio 85/A, I-43100 Parma

Title

The Alma Project or How First-Order Logic Can Help us in Imperative Programming

Abstract

Logical approach to computing has been found useful in the realm of functional, logic and database programming. We show here that also imperative programming can profit from a logical view. To this end we describe an implemented small programming language, called Alma-0, that augments the expressive power of imperative programming by a limited number of features inspired by the logic programming paradigm. These additions make it a more attractive vehicle for problems that involve search. The solutions offered in Alma-0 are substantially simpler than their counterparts written in the imperative or in the logic programming style and can be used for different purposes without any modification. In some cases programs are equal to their specifications and are therefore obviously correct. In the lecture we shall compare the programming in Alma-0 to that in the logic programming style. The language, its semantics and implementation was described in a joint paper with Jacob Brunekreef, Vincent Partington and Andrea Schaerf that appeared in ACM Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems (TOPLAS) 20(5), pp. 1014-1066, 1998. Current work deals with clarifying connections between first-order logic and the declarative counterpart of Alma-0 and with adding constraints to the language.

Contact Person

Gianfranco Rossi

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