hassan@prl.dec.com (Hassan Ait-Kaci) (11/19/90)
Hi, Following is an abstract of a short paper that Andreas Podelski and I just submitted to ICLP'91. Is there a meaning to LIFE? Hassan Ait-Kaci and Andreas Podelski LIFE (Logic, Inheritance, Functions, Equations) is an experimental programming language proposing to integrate three orthogonal programming paradigms proven useful for symbolic computation. From the programmer's standpoint, it may be perceived as a language taking after logic programming, functional programming, and object-oriented programming. From a formal perspective, it may be seen as an instance (or rather, a composition of three instances) of a Constraint Logic Programming scheme due to Hoehfeld and Smolka refining that of Jaffar and Lassez. We start with an informal overview showing the functionality of LIFE as a programming language, illustrating how the constructs of LIFE offer rather unusual, and perhaps (pleasantly) startling, conveniences. The second part is a formal account of LIFE's object unification seen as constraint-solving over specific domains. We build on work by Smolka and Rounds, and to develop type-theoretic, logical, and algebraic renditions of a calculus of order-sorted feature approximations. In a complete forthcoming LIFE report, this approximation semantics is shown to be congruent with an operational semantics expressed as a set of complete and consistent syntax-driven non-deterministic constraint normalisation rules, including functional beings. Independently of that fact, it happens to cover material that I have promised to mail to a few people I ran into during a few trips that I took recently. I am preparing a personal database to maintain a mailing list of people which would like to receive this paper and/or others from me, related or not. If you are interested, please send me back an e-mail reply with your mailing coordinates in the following format, all fields being optional: *LastNameFirstName +name [First Name Last Name] +institution [The Name Of Your Org/Dept] [And/Or Your Company/School] [Over Many Lines If Needed---Like This] +street [Number, NameOfThe Street] [Possibly Over Many Lines] +locality [Your City Name, ZIPCODE AndMaybeState] +country [YourCountry] +email [youremail@your.site.net] +telephone [+countrycode (area/city code) local-number] ... [+countrycode (area/city code) local-number] +fax [+countrycode (area/city code) local-number] +interest [theory, implementation, application, all] For (my own) example: *Ait-KaciHassan +name [Hassan A{\"\i}t-Kaci] +institution [Digital Equipment Corporation] [Paris Research Laboratory] +street [85, avenue Victor Hugo] +locality [92563 Rueil-Malmaison Cedex] +country [France] +email [hak@prl.dec.com] +telephone [+33 (1) 47.14.28.24] [+33 (1) 47.14.28.99] +interest [all] Thank you. -hak