SeaLion: An eclipse-based IDE for answer-set programming with advanced debugging support

Abstract

In this paper, we present SeaLion, an integrated development environment (IDE) for answer-set programming (ASP).SeaLionprovides source-code editors for the languages ofGringoandDLVand offers popular amenities like syntax highlighting, syntax checking, code completion, visual program outline, and refactoring functionality. The tool has been realised in the context of a research project whose goal is the development of techniques to support the practical coding process of answer-set programs. In this respect,SeaLionis the first IDE for ASP that provides debugging features that work for real-world answer-set programs and supports the rich languages of modern answer-set solvers. Indeed,SeaLionimplements a stepping-based debugging approach that allows the developer to quickly track down programming errors by simply following his or her intuitions on the intended semantics. Besides that,SeaLionsupports ASP development using model-driven engineering techniques including domain modelling with extended UML class diagrams and visualisation of answer sets in corresponding instance diagrams. Moreover, customised visualisation as well as visual editing of answer sets is realised by the Kara plugin ofSeaLion. Further implemented features are a documentation generator based on the Lana annotation language, support for external solvers, and interoperability with external tools.SeaLioncomes as a plugin of the popular Eclipse platform and provides interfaces for future extensions of the IDE.

Answering the “why” in answer set programming – A survey of explanation approaches

“…Errors can be roughly divided into syntactic and semantic ones. 25 The first category, comprising, for example, misspelled literals and wrong rule layout, is handled by most Integrated Development Environments (IDEs) for ASP such as SeaLion (Busoniu et al 2013), ASPIDE (Febbraro et al 2011), and AnsProlog* Programming Environment (APE) (Sureshkumar et al 2007).…”

Debugging Non-ground ASP Programs: Technique and Graphical Tools

“…In order to further ease the task of debugging logic programs, and appeal to those users that prefer graphical interfaces, we also developed a graphical user interface for the dwasp debugger, called dwasp-gui, and a plugin connector for the integrated development environment (IDE) aspide. An important reason to choose aspide over other ASP IDEs, like Sealion (Busoniu et al 2013), is its richer support for test-driven development of ASP programs . The test-driven development process (Fraser et al 2003) requires the repetition of a very short development cycle in which requirements are encoded as specific test cases (assessing a possibly small unit of the program), and the program is assessed against tests, and possibly fixed or improved.…”

Debugging Answer-Set Programs with Ouroboros – Extending the SeaLion Plugin

“…Thus, an unfounded loop is reminiscent of the Ouroboros, a dragon biting its own tail, which our tool is named after. Ouroboros 4 is a plugin of SeaLion [10,11], an integrated development environment (IDE) for ASP that is based on the Eclipse platform and supports developing answer-set programs using the Potassco and DLV solvers [12,13]. Thereby, Ouroboros complements the stepping-based debugging mechanism [14] integrated in SeaLion [11].…”

“…Ouroboros 4 is a plugin of SeaLion [10,11], an integrated development environment (IDE) for ASP that is based on the Eclipse platform and supports developing answer-set programs using the Potassco and DLV solvers [12,13]. Thereby, Ouroboros complements the stepping-based debugging mechanism [14] integrated in SeaLion [11]. It allows the user to interactively build up an interpretation by, stepwise, adding literals derived by a rule whose body is satisfied by the interpretation obtained in the previous step.…”