Abstract

To help encourage the wide use of a variety of logic-based languages, we advocate the identification and use of systematic program construction methods. Our approach is to capture programming idioms in the form of skeletons, or basic control flows, and standard programming techniques for construction and manipulation of data structures. We argue that the approach, coming initially from Prolog and logic grammars, is equally applicable in the context of constraints, committed-choice and higher order constructs, and indeed logic-based languages in general. This paper introduces our generalized view of skeletons and techniques, gives examples of the breadth of their applicability, and explores positive consequences for program development. 1 The Need for a Normative View Most proponents of logic programming, after having been excited about the advantages of logic programming, have puzzled why the technology has not become more widely adopted. Despite obvious advantages, logic prog...

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