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Extending Prolog with type inheritance and arithmetic

Prolog is a logic programming language based on first order logic. It uses resolution as a rule of inference, and unification is the heart of resolution. The unification algorithm is a syntactic process and hence attaches no meaning to function and predicate symbols. We incorporate arithmetic into unification by simultaneously solving linear equations that are created during the unification of partially instantiated numeric expressions. Prolog operates on the Herbrand universe, which is a single unstructured domain. In case of large structured domains, the number of resolution steps required for inference is large. We have incorporated type inheritance into Prolog to exploit large structured domains. Types are subuniverses corresponding to sets of objects. The subset of relation between types induces a hierarchy on the universe. Using the property of inheritance it is possible to obtain shorter proofs in inference. We used the constraint satisfaction model and the hierarchical constraint satisfaction concept to incorporate these extensions to Prolog. Thus, we succeeded in obtaining a logic programming language with arithmetic and type inheritance. This implementation extends standard Prolog and can be directly added to the WAM concept. / Master of Science

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:VTETD/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/43082
Date10 June 2012
CreatorsChitale, Chandan S.
ContributorsComputer Science and Applications, Roach, John W., Watson, Layne T., Bixler, J. Patrick
PublisherVirginia Tech
Source SetsVirginia Tech Theses and Dissertation
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis, Text
Formatviii, 100 leaves, BTD, application/pdf, application/pdf
RightsIn Copyright, http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
RelationOCLC# 20347569, LD5655.V855_1989.C536.pdf

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