This area is divided into two groups:

• Implementation Technology for Computational Logic systems and
• Component-based Software Development.

Implementation Technology for Computational Logic systems

Objectives

• Contribute to cross-fertilisation of implementation techniques in different areas of CL.
• Foster research on new CL systems and dissemination of results.
• Promote the use of similar interfaces for related capabilities in different CL systems.
• Disseminate the state of the art of CL systems and environments.
• Improve communication and collaboration among research groups, academic and industrial users, etc.

Motivation: This workpackage deals both with implementation technologies, including analysis, compilation, debugging, etc., and with the dissemination of information regarding CL systems and their successful application among industry and academia. These two key points are not restricted to (Constraint) Logic Programming, but apply to all areas of Computational Logic (CL). There has been a great deal of work on implementation in different areas of CL which has come up with high-quality solutions to many problems, and it has been quite often the case that apparently unrelated problems attacked in different areas are actually somehow similar, and similar solutions can be adopted. Therefore, there is the hope that some of the techniques developed in one area are useful in other areas. An example of this is the use of techniques originally developed for logic programming compilation in automated deduction, as done in the Boyer-Moore theorem prover. In addition, it is crucial for the impact of CL that potential industrial and academic users are aware of the existing CL systems and of their capabilities, and have readily available information regarding these systems.

Description of work

The activity of the workpackage will be organised around a series of annual workshops and the creation of a WWW site. Additionally there will be frequent contacts with other area coordinators in order to maintain the WWW site up-to-date.

Area workshop:

• The aim of the workshops is to bring together developers and users of systems from different areas of CL.
• It will be co-located with other CL conferences, in order to minimise cost and increase the potential audience.
• The proceedings will be published as a technical report of the UPM. An electronic version of the proceedings will also be available at the web site mentioned below.

Web site containing:

• Up-to-date information about research on Computational Logic implementation, technology and environments, including, but not limited to:
• Papers,
• Researchers,
• Short project descriptions and main results.
• A complete database of descriptions and links to both commercial and free-software systems and environments for Computational Logic.
• Several open discussion forums. It will start from a initial set of forums, where, for example, users can present their requirements to developers and developers can announce and discuss their work, new applications of CL systems can be proposed, standards can be reviewed. New forums will be created as dictated by the need.
• A showcase of successful stories of CL-based applications. Its role is to demonstrate the usefulness of CL techniques in real-life, industrial problems.

Deliverables

• Web site with the information described above.
• Proceedings of the workshops organised by the network area.

Milestones and expected result

• Months 1-6: Design of the WWW site. Meeting/discussion with other work package/area chairs.
• Months 7-12: First workshop held. Proceedings integrated in WWW site. Months 13-18: Improvement of the WWW site according to users' feedback and comments from attendees to first workshop.
• Months 13-24: Second workshop held. Proceedings integrated in WWW site. Months 25-36: Update of the WWW site.

Component-based Software Development

Objectives

Set up a web-based resource centre for Component-based Software Development (CBD) in Computational Logic (CL).

Description of work

Component-based Software Development (CBD) is the next big development in software engineering. It has been hailed as the Industrial Revolution for IT. Industry is taking CBD very seriously and investing in it. However, all the current industrial approaches/tools are just old OO versions rehashed, and will not scale up to CBD. CL can make crucial, fundamental contributions to this Revolution, but CL must work closely with industry to achieve any impact. The task is to set up a web-based resource centre for CBD in Computational Logic (CL), with a view to facilitating ongoing/future research in this area. The resource centre will be a web site that provides information on state-of-the-art of CBD in both industry and academia (both inside and outside CL), which will enable the project members to identify research problems, and initiate/promote collaboration between industry and academia. The objective of the task is to collaborate with industry as much as possible, by way of meetings with (andpresentations to) industrial people. Industrial collaboration would mean that the resource centre would contain up-to-date industrial CBD information, and would therefore be useful to industry (as well as academics of course). For the task envisaged, the project team should consist of around 4 partner sites, responsible for sub-tasks distributed among them.

Activities

The members involved will collaborate on the information gathering and on the design and implementation of the web site. They will meet regularly to discuss CBD in general as well as CBD in CL in particular, with a view to stimulating or starting new research. The progress of the whole task will be monitored at these project meetings. Since there are no current workshops that address this topic, it is also planned to organise annual workshops and industrial seminars on technical matters related to CBD. These would coincide with the annual project meeting. The members will also attend relevant outside workshops/conferences on web design matters as well as on CBD.

Education and Training

The resource centre will be accessible by industry and academia, and will thus provide information for education and training purposes. The workshops and industrial seminars will be open to industry and academia, and will thus provide further education and training opportunities.

Deliverables

Deliverables will include the pages for the (various stages of the) web site, as well as workshop/seminar proceedings.

• Month 6 First project meeting, Project Plan, Planning and design & Initial web site design
• Month 12 Initial implementation, Second project meeting & Initial web site, First workshop/seminar & First workshop/seminar proceedings
• Month 24 Completing implementation, Third project meeting & Completed web site Second workshop/seminar & Second workshop/seminar proceedings
• Month 36 Refinement and Maintenance Fifth project meeting & Completed website. Third workshop/seminar & Third workshop/seminar proceedings