Methods and rules

ABSTRACT

We show how classical datalog semantics can be used directly and very simply to provide semantics to a syntactic extension of datalog with methods, classes, inheritance, overloading and late binding. Several approaches to resolution are considered, implemented in the model, and formally compared. They range from resolution in C++ style to original kinds of resolution suggested by the declarative nature of the language. We show connections to view specification and a further extension allowing runtime derivation of the class hierarchy.

REFERENCES

• AB91: Serge Abiteboul , Anthony Bonner, Objects and views, Proceedings of the 1991 ACM SIGMOD international conference on Management of data, p.238-247, May 29-31, 1991, Denver, Colorado, United States
• ABW88: K. R. Apt , H. A. Blair , A. Walker, Towards a theory of declarative knowledge, Foundations of deductive databases and logic programming, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers Inc., San Francisco, CA, 1988
• AG88: Serge Abiteboul , Stéphane Grumbach, A rule-based language with functions and sets, ACM Transactions on Database Systems (TODS), v.16 n.1, p.1-30, March 1991 [doi>10.1145/103140.103141]
• AH88: Serge Abiteboul , Richard Hull, Data functions, datalog and negation, Proceedings of the 1988 ACM SIGMOD international conference on Management of data, p.143-153, June 01-03, 1988, Chicago, Illinois, United States
• AK89: Serge Abiteboul , Paris C. Kanellakis, Object identity as a query language primitive, Proceedings of the 1989 ACM SIGMOD international conference on Management of data, p.159-173, June 1989, Portland, Oregon, United States
• AKW90: Serge Abiteboul , Paris C. Kanellakis , Emmanuel Waller, Method schemas, Proceedings of the ninth ACM SIGACT-SIGMOD-SIGART symposium on Principles of database systems, p.16-27, April 02-04, 1990, Nashville, Tennessee, United States [doi>10.1145/298514.298538]
• ALUW93: S. Abiteboul, G. Lausen, H. Uphoff and E. Waller. Methods and Rules. Full version.
• AN86: H Aït-Kaci , R Nasr, Login: A logic programming language with built-in inheritance, Journal of Logic Programming, v.3 n.3, p.185-215, Oct. 1986 [doi>10.1016/0743-1066(86)90013-0]
• BL91: S. Brass and U. W. Lipeck. Semantics of inheritance in logical object specifications. In Proc. DOOD, 1991.
• BM92: Elisa Bertino , Danilo Montesi, Towards a Logical-Object Oriented Programming Language for Databases, Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Extending Database Technology: Advances in Database Technology, p.168-183, March 23-27, 1992
• Bre87: G. Brewka. The logic of inheritance in frame systems. In Intl. Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, 1987.
• CCCR+90: F. Cacace , S. Ceri , S. Crespi-Reghizzi , L. Tanca , R. Zicari, Integrating object-oriented data modelling with a rule-based programming paradigm, Proceedings of the 1990 ACM SIGMOD international conference on Management of data, p.225-236, May 23-26, 1990, Atlantic City, New Jersey, United States
• CLOS: Daniel G. Bobrow , Linda G. DeMichiel , Richard P. Gabriel , Sonya E. Keene , Gregor Kiczales , David A. Moon, Common Lisp Object System specification, ACM SIGPLAN Notices, v.23 n.SI, p.1-142, September 1988 [doi>10.1145/885631.885632]
• Fit85: M. Fitting. A Kripke-Kleene semantics for logic programs. In J. Logic Programming, 2(4):295-312, 1985.
• KL89: Michael Kifer , Georg Lausen, F-logic: a higher-order language for reasoning about objects, inheritance, and scheme, Proceedings of the 1989 ACM SIGMOD international conference on Management of data, p.134-146, June 1989, Portland, Oregon, United States
• KLW90: M. Kifer, G. Lausen, and J. Wu. Logical foundations of object oriented and framebased languages. Technical report, State University of New York at Stony Brook, 1990.
• LO91: Yanjun Lou , Z. Meral Ozsoyoglu, LLO: an object-oriented deductive language with methods and method inheritance, Proceedings of the 1991 ACM SIGMOD international conference on Management of data, p.198-207, May 29-31, 1991, Denver, Colorado, United States
• LV92: E. Laenens and D. Vermeir. Assumptionfree semantics for ordered logic programs: On the relationship between well-founded and stable partial models. J. Logic Computat., 2(2), 1992.
• McC84: J. McCarthy, Applications of circumscription to formalizing common-sense knowledge, Readings in nonmonotonic reasoning, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers Inc., San Francisco, CA, 1987
• Prz88: T. C. Przymusinski, On the declarative semantics of deductive databases and logic programs, Foundations of deductive databases and logic programming, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers Inc., San Francisco, CA, 1988
• Ull88: Jeffrey D. Ullman, Principles of database and knowledge-base systems, Vol. I, Computer Science Press, Inc., New York, NY, 1988
• VGRS91: Allen Van Gelder , Kenneth A. Ross , John S. Schlipf, The well-founded semantics for general logic programs, Journal of the ACM (JACM), v.38 n.3, p.619-649, July 1991 [doi>10.1145/116825.116838]

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.2 DATABASE MANAGEMENT
      H.2.3 Languages

          Nouns: Datalog

Additional Classification:
  D. Software
  D.3 PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES
      D.3.1 Formal Definitions and Theory
          Subjects: Syntax; Semantics
      D.3.2 Language Classifications
          Subjects: Object-oriented languages

  F. Theory of Computation
  F.4 MATHEMATICAL LOGIC AND FORMAL LANGUAGES

  H. Information Systems
  H.2 DATABASE MANAGEMENT

General Terms:
Algorithms, Languages