Meta Programming In Logic Programming

This volume contains lectures and papers delivered at Meta 92, the Third International Workshop on Metaprogramming in Logic, held in Uppsala, Sweden,June 1992. The topics covered include foundations of metaprogramming in logic, proposals for metaprogramming languages, techniques for knowledgerepresentation and belief systems, and program transformation and analysis in logic. Particular topics include belief revision systems, intensionaldeduction, belief systems and metaprogramming, principles of partial deduction, termination in logic programs, semantics of the "vanilla" metainterpreter, a complete resolution method for metaprogramming, semanticsof "demo", hierarchical metalogics, the naming relation in metalevel systems, modules, reflective agents, compiler optimizations, metalogic and object-oriented facilities, parallel logic languages, the use of metaprogramming for legal reasoning, representing objects and inheritance, transformation of normal programs, negation in automatically generated logic programs, reordering of literals in deductive databases, abstract interpretations, and interarguments in constraint logic programs.

Investigating meta-programming within the logic programming paradigm, Meta-Logics and Logic Programming presents original research on an important extension of logic programming that makes it more amenable for knowledge representation and programming in general. The 12 contributions, many written especially for this book, explore the foundations, language design issues, and applications of meta-programming in logic programming.Meta-programming -- the process of writing computer programs that can manipulate representations of other programs -- has been key both in the foundations of computer science and in its practical developments. Examples of meta-programs include compilers, interpreters, program analyzers, and partial evaluators. The choice of logic programming as a basis for meta-programming offers several practical and theoretical advantages: among them, the possibility of tackling critical foundational problems of meta-programming within a strong theoretical framework, and the surprising ease of programming. The usual framework of logic programming (and more generally first-order logic), however, has to be modified and extended to formally deal with meta-programs, extensions the editors call "meta-logics." Along with an exploration of meta-programming in logic programming, the definitions, formal properties, and use of these extensions constitute one of the book's main themes.The first part of the book, Foundations, focuses on the representation problem -- how object programs are represented within meta-programs. The second part, Language Support for Meta-Logics, is concerned with language extensions that make meta-programming easier and more elegant. The third part, Meta-Logics for Knowledge Management, deals with the use of meta-logic for advanced knowledge representation purposes.

This volume constitutes the combined proceedings of the 4th International Workshops on Logic Program Synthesis and Transformation (LOPSTR '94) and on Meta-Programming (META '94), held jointly in Pisa, Italy in June 1994. This book includes thoroughly revised versions of the best papers presented at both workshops. The main topics addressed by the META papers are language extensions in support of meta-logic, semantics of meta-logic, implementation of meta-logic features, performance of meta-logic, and several applicational aspects. The LOPSTR papers are devoted to unfolding/folding, partial deduction, proofs as programs, inductive logic programming, automated program verification, specification and programming methodologies.

The Handbook of Logic in Artificial Intelligence and Logic Programming is a multi-volume work covering all major areas of the application of logic to artificial intelligence and logic programming. The authors are chosen on an international basis and are leaders in the fields covered. Volume 5 is the last in this well-regarded series. Logic is now widely recognized as one of the foundational disciplines of computing. It has found applications in virtually all aspects of the subject, from software and hardware engineering to programming languages and artificial intelligence. In response to the growing need for an in-depth survey of these applications the Handbook of Logic in Artificial Intelligence and its companion, the Handbook of Logic in Computer Science have been created. The Handbooks are a combination of authoritative exposition, comprehensive survey, and fundamental research exploring the underlying themes in the various areas. Some mathematical background is assumed, and much of the material will be of interest to logicians and mathematicians. Volume 5 focuses particularly on logic programming. The chapters, which in many cases are of monograph length and scope, emphasize possible unifying themes.