brady@swift.cs.tcd.ie (04/29/91)
Gentle net-persons,
Quite a few of you asked for a summary of replies to my request to
be posted, so here it is. Thanks to everyone who replied. One or two items
were edited slightly. Any of my annotations are in square brackets.
Mike Brady
brady@cs.tcd.ie
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From: Ken Johnson <ken@aiai.ed.ac.uk>
We do an introductory one-week course on it here (using Charme as a
language).
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From: Malte Grosse <grosse@informatik.TU-MUENCHEN.DBP.de>
A good suggestion is the following book by
Pascal Van Hentenryck:
Constraint Satisfaction in Logic Programming
MIT-Press 1989
It is his Ph.D thesis. It includes several examples which can
run in PROLOG.
He is one of the founder of CHIP (Constraint Handling in PROLOG),
which was developed at the ECRC in Munich.
Hope this helps,
Malte
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From: Tim Duncan <timd@aiai.ed.ac.uk>
Hi, I wrote a very short overview of Constraint Logic Programming for
AIRING which is AIAI's newsletter. I have it in mind to write a more
comprehensive intro at some time, but you know ... some time :-)
Anyhow, although it's probably not what you are seeking it may still
be of some interest (and there are some references at the end).
-- Tim
[Mail Tim directly for a copy - it's a bit long to put in this summary. - Mike]
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From: TAKIKAWA MASAMI <takikawm@fog.CS.ORST.edu>
Hi,
Among others, I recommend these:
From Unification to Constraints
Jaxan Jaffar and Jean-Louis Lassez
Logic Programming '87
Springer-Verlag
Constraint Logic Programming Languages
Jacques Cohen
Communications of the ACM (July 1990)
Hope this helps.
Masami
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From: turpin@cs.utexas.edu
William Leler, "Constraint Programming Languages"
The second and larger part of this book focuses on the language
Bertrand, which is one of the more powerful CPLs. The first
part is an introduction to CPLs in general, including how they
are implemented.
Russell
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From: Thierry Le Provost <thierry@ecrc.de>
I know of two good books (both at MIT Press) that describe two competing
approaches to CLP.
"Constraint Satisfaction in Logic Programming", by P. Van Hentenryck
This is the "CLP = Consistency techniques on finite domains" view. The book
describes the theory, implementation, and applications of the CLP system CHIP.
Constraints are logically definable predicates that are used by new inference
rules ("forward-checking","lookahead") to reduce the finite domains associated
with variables.
"Concurrent Constraint Programming Languages", by V. Saraswat
This is the "reactive" perspective on constraint logic programming.
Constraints are seen as networks of concurrent processes. This book certainly has more
"mathematical squiggles" than the one above.
I cannot recommend one over the other, since they describe very distinct
approaches.
To get a quick grasp of this distinction, you may look at the way the
"N-queens"
problem is formulated and solved in the two books.
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From: weems@cse.uta.edu
I would recommend the book: Constraint Satisfaction in Logic Programming
by Pascal Van Hentenryck published by MIT press.
To actually do something, contact joxan@ibm.com about obtaining the floppy
with the c source for CLP(R).
bob Weems
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From: Jacques Chassin de Kergommeaux <chassin@capsogeti.fr>
I'd recommend "Constraint Satisfaction in Logic Programming" from P. Van
Hentenryck, MIT Press. Short book, very clear.
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From: Lawrence BAER <baer@homer.cs.mcgill.ca>
As I am doing some work in this area myself, I have collected a few references:
Constraint Logic Programming by Catherine Lassez in BYTE, Aug/87, pp.171-176.
This is a gentle introduction to the area but, of course, does not go into
much depth.
Constraint Satisfaction in Logic Programming by Pascal van Hentenryck, 1989,
MIT Press, is a well written book which describes the author's solution to
CSP's for finite domains, namely the CHIP language (which is not part of the
CLP framework).
The CLP(R) Language and System by Jaffar, Michaylov, Stuckey, and Yap,
CMU Tech. Report CMU-CS-90-181, Carnegie-Mellon University, Oct, 1990.
I have just gotten my hands on it but, as the title suggests, it appears to
focus only on CLP(R), not CLP in general.
Larry Baer
School of Computer Science
McGill University
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From: Volker Kuechenhoff <volker@ecrc.de>
Pascal van Hentenryck: Constraint Satisfaction in Logic Programming
MIT Press, 1989
[I haven't been able to reply to Volker - it bounced. Thanks Volker! -M.]
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From: Larry Muller <MLWLG@CUNYVM.bitnet>
Mike,
"Constraints and Logic Programming," Kenneth Mcloon & Carol Tretkoff
Logic Based Systems Lab, Brooklyn College, New York City, Brooklyn.
I do not know the publisher, or, even if it was pub outside of
BC, but it is readable (intro?).
" Constraint Logic Programming" Joxan Jaffar & Jean-Louis Lassez
I.B.M. Thomson J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights,
New York 10598 (check it out).
Good Luck,
-Larry Muller