Tabled CLP: Description, Implementation and Evaluation of a Generic Design
Modular TCLP
Abstract
Logic programming with tabling and constraints (TCLP, tabled constraint logic programming) has been shown to be more expressive and in some cases more efficient than LP, CLP or LP + tabling.
Previous designs of TCLP systems did not fully use entailment to determine call / answer subsumption and did not provide a simple and well-documented interface to facilitate the integration of constraint solvers in existing tabling systems.
We study the role of entailment and projection in the design of a TCLP system, and present the design and an experimental evaluation of Mod TCLP, a framework which eases this integration. Mod TCLP views constraint solvers as clients of the tabling system, which is generic w.r.t. the solver and only requires a clear interface from the latter.
We validate our design by integrating four constraint solvers: a previously existing constraint solver for difference constraints, written in C; the standard versions of Holzbaur s CLP(Q) and CLP(R), written in Prolog; and a new constraint solver for equations over finite lattices.
We evaluate the performance of our framework in several benchmarks using the aforementioned constraint solvers. Mod TCLP was developed in Ciao Prolog, a robust, mature, next-generation Prolog system. Logic programming systems with tabling and constraints (TCLP, tabled constraint logic programming) have been shown to be more expressive and in some cases more efficient than those featuring only either tabling or constraints.
Distribution
Ciao-distribution-tplp.tar.gz
$ ./ciao-boot.sh configure --instype=local --core:m32=yes
$ ./ciao-boot.sh build_nodocs ciao
$ source core/etc/DOTprofile
NOTE: Read INSTALATION for required dependencies before build: For Ubuntu: $ sudo apt-get install emacs build-essential texlive texinfo imagemagick gcc-multilib libc6-i386 libc6-dev-i386
Original TCLP
Distribution
CiaoDE-1.15-2373-gd8813ce.tar.gz
$ ./ciaosetup user-install.
$ source ciao/etc/DOTprofile
NOTE: Read INSTALATION for required dependencies before build:
-
For Ubuntu:
$ sudo apt-get install emacs build-essential texlive texinfo imagemagick gcc-multilib libc6-i386 libc6-dev-i386
Evaluation
The design we are presenting is likely to bring more flexibility to a system with tabled constraints at a reasonably price in implementation effort. We will support this claim with several examples. As it is usual with these cases, additional flexibility comes also with a performance price, which we will also evaluate. To perform this double validation, we have used four solvers with different characteristics in their implementation:| LP | Tabling | CLP(DC) | Original TCLP(DC) | Mod TCLP(DC) | CLP(Q) | Mod TCLP(Q) | Mod TCLP(R) | Mod TCLP(Latt) | |
| [original_]truckload{100,200,300}_{dc,t_dc} | |||||||||
| step{10,20,30}_t_dc | |||||||||
| fibonacci{89,610,28657,832040}_{dc,clpq,clpr} | |||||||||
| {dist_cycles,dist_wo_cycles}_{left,right}_{lp,tab,clp,tclp} | |||||||||
| takeuchi{3,6,8}_{tab,tclp} | |||||||||
| sentinel{4,6,8}_{tab,tclp} |
Benchmarks
Benchmark-tplp.tar.gz
- To execute all the programs:
$ ./go
- To specify some programs
$ ./go "step_10_t_dc"