FGCS Project Evaluation Report
Keith L. Clark
Imperial College
London, UK
5th June 1992
Furukawa had read with interest our 1981 paper on the Relational Language and, even
before the start of the FGCS project, had considered using a concurrent logic language
rather than an or-parallel Prolog as the PIM kernel language.) Our 1983 visit coincided with
the second ICOT visit of Ehud Shapiro, the originator of Concurrent Prolog, which was
based on but significantly extended the Relational Language. I believe that between the
three of us, we helped convince Koichi Furukawa and his colleagues that adopting a
concurrent LP language as the PIM kernel language was a sound approach. During that
visit Steve Gregory and I crystalized our views on the essential features of Parlog, our
successor to the Relational Language.
Since 1983 I have briefly visited ICOT twice, in 1985 and 1990, and had papers in both the
1984 and 1988 FGCS conferences. Colleagues Ian Foster and Jim Crammond, working
on programming environments and implementations for Parlog, have both been invited to
ICOT. Over the years there has been much exchange of views between ICOT and the far
smaller Parlog Group at Imperial. The meta call of Parlog, introduced into Parlog by Steve
Gregory and I on our 1983 visit to ICOT, is very similar to the shoen of KL1. Both are
used to support the programming of operating system functions. Hence my vested interest
in the project, and my earnest wish that it be perceived to be the great achievement that I
believe it is. If some of my following remarks appear to be critical, they are intended as
constructive criticism. They represent what I consider needs to be done to convince a
skeptical world that there are significant results and achievements in the FGCS project of
which the world had better take note.
Impact of the FGCS project
Let me begin by saying some positive things about the impact which the project has had
outside Japan.
Firstly, it made Japan pacemakers in logic programming research and a country whose
research into LP and its AI applications had to be taken seriously by the international AI
research community. In addition, by the spin offs and interest in computer science research
that it has generated in Japan, it has also made the country a force in CS research. You
have also, through rotating industry researchers through the hot house of ICOT, trained a
new generation of computer scientists and engineers into techniques of advanced research.
I and others have observed with pleasure the maturing of the young scientists that were
nurtured by ICOT. They are now well able to hold their own in the international research
community and to explain their ideas effectively and clearly. Many have remarked to me at
this conference on the quality of the presentations, especially those from ICOT researchers.
ICOT staff and associated researches have not only had an impact in the fields of LP
language design, programming methodology and implementation, they have made
significant contributions in all areas of logic programming.
Outside Japan the FGCS project stimulated a great deal of research activity by both
universities and industry, and it unlocked significant government funds to support this
research. The UK Alvey and EC ESPRIT programs almost certainly would not have
started, or would have been funded at much lower levels, were it not for the FGCS project.
Nor would the industry supported MCC, ECRC and SICS research institutes have been
formed. For this stimulus to CS research, thank you. I personally owe my chair at
Imperial, certainly the fact that I got it in 1987, to this increased activity and respect for LP
research that followed the announcement of the project.
The FGCS project had a significant effect on the amount of research activity and perceived
importance of both AI and LP research. The IJCAI 1986 conference in LA and the ICLP
1986 conference in London have not had higher attendance or greater interest from
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