XSB as an efficient deductive database engine

Abstract

This paper describes the XSB system, and its use as an inmemory deductive database engine. XSB began from a Prolog foundation, and traditional Prolog systems are known to have serious deficiencies when used as database systems. Accordingly, XSB has a fundamental bottom-up extension, int reduced through tabling (or memoing) [4], which makes it appropriate e as an underlying query engine for deductive database systems. Because it eliminates redundant computation, the tabling extension makes XSB able to compute all modularly strattied datalog programs fudtely and with polynomial data complexity. For non-stratified programs, a meta-interpreter with the same properties is provided. In addition XSB significantly extends and improves the indexing capabilities over those of standard Prolog. Finally, its synt attic basis in HILog [2], lends it flexibility y for data modelling.The implementation of XSB derives from the WAM [25], the most common Prolog engine, XSB iuherits the WAM'S efficiency and can take advantage of extensive compiler t ethnology developed for Prolog. As a result, performance comparisons indicate that XSB is significantly faster than other deductive database systems for a wide range of queries and stratified rule sets. XSB is under continuous development, and version 1.3 is available through anonymous ftp.

WUENIC – A Case Study in Rule-Based Knowledge Representation and Reasoning

“…On the one hand, this highlights the difficulties that other implementers may face with other applications. On the other hand, it draws attention to the potential of tabling [7] to overcome some of the problems of programming in Prolog, and to facilitate its wider application in the future.…”

“…The latter of these two alternatives is provided by Prolog systems, such as XSB Prolog, which use the technique of tabling [7] to generate the solution of every subgoal only once. We transported the WUENIC system to XSB Prolog soon after diagnosing the problem.…”

Teleo-Reactive Abductive Logic Programs

“…The inefficiency of re-evaluating these conditions in the operational semantics can be avoided, as it is in the TR operational semantics, in the Prolog implementation of cut, or by means of tabling [21]. The operational semantics of LTR is based on the operational semantics of ALPA, similarly to the way in which the operational semantics of LPS is based on that of ALPA.…”

Reasoning with conditionals in artificial intelligence

“…This problem can be solved at least in part by employing more sophisticated ("stronger"), but still general-purpose problemsolvers that never try to solve similar sub-goals more than once (Sagonas et al, 1994).…”