Warren’s Abstract Machine: A Tutorial Reconstruction (Logic Programming) by Hassan Ait-Kaci (PDF)

Description

This tutorial demystifies one of the most important yet poorly understood aspects of logic programming, the Warren Abstract Machine or WAM. The author’s step-by-step construction of the WAM adds features in a gradual manner, clarifying the complex aspects of the design and providing the first detailed study of WAM since it was designed in 1983. Developed by David H. D. Warren, the WAM is an abstract (nonphysical) computer that aids in the compilation and implementation of the Prolog programming language and offers techniques for compiling and optimizing symbolic computing that can be generalized beyond Prolog. Although the benefits of the WAM design have been widely accepted, few have been able to penetrate the WAM. This lucid introduction defines separate abstract machines for each conceptually separate part of the design and refines them, finally stitching them together to make a WAM. An index presents all of the critical concepts used in the WAM. It is assumed that readers have a clear understanding of the operational semantics of Prolog, in particular, of unification and backtracking, but a brief summary of the necessary Prolog notions is provided.ContentsIntroduction • Unification―Pure and Simple • Flat Resolution • Prolog • Optimizing the Design • Conclusion • Appendixes

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: About the Author Hassan Aït-Kaci is Member of Research Staff, Digital Equipment Corporation, Paris Research Laboratory.

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐Prolog has 3 distinguishing features: deep recursion, unification, and backtracking. The WAM is a runtime system implementing these features via low-level, explicit function call frame manipulations and parameter passings on the heap rather than the stack. The author builds a series of runtime systems, progressively more complicated, by adding one feature at a time, to finally result in the WAM. Each step is illuminating for anyone interested in the implementation of Prolog’s or related features, such as lightweight multi-threading. This book is also a perfect supplement to advanced compiler or programming language classes – very surprised it’s not more widely used and cited. Out of print but a pdf version can be downloaded from the author. A compact and fascinating book!

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