Meta-Logics and Logic Programming

ISBN 10: 0262511681 / ISBN 13: 9780262511681

Published by MIT Press, 2003

About this Item

Seller Inventory # ABLING22Oct1111410006638

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Meta-Logics and Logic Programming
• Publisher: MIT Press
• Publication Date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0262511681
• ISBN 13: 9780262511681
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

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.

About the Author

Krzysztof R. Apt is Professor at the Centrum voor Wiskinde en Informatica in Amsterdam.