Abstract
Experience using constraint programming to solve real-life problems has shown that finding an efficient solution to the problem often requires experimentation with different constraint solvers or even building a problem-specific constraint solver. HAL is a new constraint logic programming language expressly designed to facilitate this process. It provides semi-optional type, mode and determinism declarations. These allow natural constraint specification by means of type overloading, better compile-time error checking and generation of more efficient run-time code. Importantly, it provides type classes which can be used to specify solver interfaces, allowing the constraint programmer to support modelling of a constraint problem independent of a particular solver, leading to easy “plug and play” experimentation with different solvers. Other interesting features include mutable global variables for implementing a constraint store, and dynamic scheduling and Constraint Handling Rules (CHRs) for combining, extending and writing new constraint solvers.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
F. Bueno, M. Garcia de la Banda, M. Hermenegildo, K. Marriott, G. Puebla, and P. J. Stuckey. A model for inter-module analysis and optimizing compilation. In Procs of LOPSTR2000, volume 2042 of LNCS, pages 86–102, 2001. 55
M. García de la Banda, D. Jeffery, K. Marriott, P. J. Stuckey, N. Nethercote, and C. Holzbaur. Building constraint solvers with HAL. In P. Codognet, editor, Logic Programming: Proceedings of the 17th International Conference, LNCS, pages 90–104. Springer-Verlag, 2001. 49
B. Demoen, M. García de la Banda, W. Harvey, K. Marriott, and P. J. Stuckey. Herbrand constraint solving in HAL. In D. De Schreye, editor, Logic Programming: Proceedings of the 16th International Conference, pages 260–274. MIT Press, 1999. 49, 64
B. Demoen, M. García de la Banda, W. Harvey, K. Marriott, and P. J. Stuckey. An overview of HAL. In J. Jaffar, editor, Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Principles and Practices of Constraint Programming, LNCS, pages 174–188. Springer-Verlag, October 1999. 49
B. Demoen, M. García de la Banda, and P. J. Stuckey. Type constraint solving for parametric and ad-hoc polymorphism. In Procs. of the 22nd Australian Comp. Sci. Conf., pages 217–228, 1999. 64
D. Diaz and P. Codognet. A minimal extension of the WAM for clp(fd). In Procs. of ICLP93, pages 774–790, 1993. 47
A. J. Fernández and B. C. Ruiz Jiménez. Una semántica operacional para CProlog. In Proceedings of II Jornadas de Informática, pages 21–30, 1996. 53
T. Früwirth. Theory and practice of constraint handling rules. Journal of Logic Programming, 37:95–138, 1998. 47, 62
M. García de la Banda, P. J. Stuckey, W. Harvey, and K. Marriott. Mode checking in HAL. In J. LLoyd et al., editor, Proceedings of the First International Conference on Computational Logic, LNCS 1861, pages 1270–1284. Springer-Verlag, July 2000. 49, 54, 64
W. Harvey and P. J. Stuckey. Constraint representation for propagation. In Procs. of PPCP98, pages 235–249, 1998. 64
M. Hermenegildo, F. Bueno, D. Cabeza, M. García de la Banda, P. López, and G. Puebla. The CIAO multi-dialect compiler and system. In Parallelism and Implementation of Logic and Constraint Logic Programming. Nova Science, 1999. 51
C. Holzbaur. Metastructures vs. attributed variables in the context of extensible unification. In Procs. of the PLILP92, pages 260–268, 1992. 47
C. Holzbaur, P. J. Stuckey, M. García de la Banda, and D. Jeffery. Optimizing compilation of constraint handling rules. In P. Codognet, editor, Logic Programming: Proceedings of the 17th International Conference, LNCS, pages 74–89. Springer-Verlag, 2001. 49, 62
ILOG. CPLEX product page. http://www.ilog.com/products/cplex/. 64
J. Jaffar, S. Michaylov, P. Stuckey, and R. Yap. The CLP(ℜ) language and system. ACM Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems, 4(3):339–395, 1992. 47
D. Jeffery, F. Henderson, and Z. Somogyi. Type classes in Mercury. Technical Report 98/13, University of Melbourne, Australia, 1998. 53
S. Kaes. Parametric overloading in polymorphic programming languages. In ESOP’88 Programming Languages and Systems, volume 300 of LNCS, pages 131–141, 1988. 53
K. Marriott and P. J. Stuckey. Programming with Constraints: an Introduction. MIT Press, 1998. 49
N. Nethercote. The analysis framework for HAL. Master’s thesis, Dept. of Comp. Sci and Soft. Eng, University of Melbourne, 2002. 64
Z. Somogyi, F. Henderson, and T. Conway. The execution algorithm of Mercury: an efficient purely declarative logic programming language. Journal of Logic Programming, 29:17–64, 1996. 49
P. Wadler and S. Blott. How to make ad-hoc polymorphism less ad-hoc. In Proc. 16th ACM POPL, pages 60–76, 1989. 53
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2002 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
García de la Banda, M., Demoen, B., Marriott, K., Stuckey, P.J. (2002). To the Gates of HAL: A HAL Tutorial. In: Hu, Z., Rodríguez-Artalejo, M. (eds) Functional and Logic Programming. FLOPS 2002. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 2441. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-45788-7_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-45788-7_3
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-44233-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-45788-6
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive