Re: Storing data and code in a Db with LISP-like interface

"Neo" <neo55592@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message 
news:1144902140.750953.42080@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>> Aren't you basically reinventing Prolog or one of its variants?
>
> Possibly and probably.
>
>> The notion of code in a database where the code modifies
>> itself as part of the data management is fundamental to Prolog.
>> How is this different?
>
> At the core, the difference is the data model used to represent things.
> LISP uses linked listed which can be nested. ProLog also seems to have
> lists, but I am unsure of its fundamental data methodology. My
> LISP-like interface (still in early dev) is built on top of a data
> model that more similar to RM in terms of functionality.
>

There is nothing novel about this.  Prolog also uses linked lists which
can 
be nested.  In addition, you can place structures in the list, and the 
structures can contain atoms and lists and "lists of lists" and "lists of 
lists and atoms," etc.  There is no 'program.'  The system is an ordered 
database of assertions.  You start the logic engine by asking a question. 
The engine attempts to answer the question using the information in the 
database, matching as it goes, using a depth-first tree search.  The 
underlying math is predicate calculus and horn clauses.  Primitives in the

language allow you to assert data into the database, thus modifying the 
'program'.  This allows the system to learn.

Much of the work on semantic machine learning was done in Prolog in the 
1980s.  The problem that Prolog faced was that it was fairly easy, with 
early engines, to create perfectly legal programs that failed to evaluate 
because the logic engine wasn't sophisticated enough to prune the tree 
efficiently.  This was solved by researchers at SUNY in New York with the 
XSB prolog system. http://www.cs.sunysb.edu/~sbprolog/xsb-page.html

Versions of Prolog exist now for a wide array of platforms, including a 
version of Prolog that compiles to the .Net Framework called P#. 
http://www.dcs.ed.ac.uk/home/stg/Psharp/

This allows you to associate P# directly with Oracle and SQL Server.

-- 
--- Nick Malik [Microsoft]
    MCSD, CFPS, Certified Scrummaster
    http://blogs.msdn.com/nickmalik

Disclaimer: Opinions expressed in this forum are my own, and not 
representative of my employer.
   I do not answer questions on behalf of my employer.  I'm just a 
programmer helping programmers.
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