Guards †

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Rules with a Guard †

Guards specify applicability conditions of rewrite rules. The syntax of a rule with a guard is:

Head :- Guard | Body

where Guard is a multiset of type constraints of the form c($p1, ..., $pn).

Type constraints constrains the shapes of processes (or the names of unary atoms) received by the process contexts $p1, ..., $pn. The type constraint name c is drawn from a built-in set and specifies which kind of constraints is imposed.

A constraint of the form uniq($p1, ..., $pn) is also allowed. This is a control structure rather than a type constraint and used to avoid infinite rule application (see below).

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Examples †

Here is an example rule with guard:

waitint(X), $p[X] :- int($p) | ok.

This can be abbreviated to

waitint($p) :- int($p) | ok.

and can be thought of representing the following infinite number of rules:

waitint(0)  :- ok.
waitint(1)  :- ok.
waitint(-1) :- ok.
waitint(2)  :- ok.
waitint(-2) :- ok.
...

The following are examples of some type constraints that can be written in Guard:

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Notes †

Each type constraint name (such as int or <) has its own mode of usage that specifies which of its arguments are input arguments. The effect of the constraint specified by a type constraint is enabled only after the shapes (or values) of its input arguments are all determined. For example, $r = $p + $q proceeds only when $p and $q are determined.

The same abbreviation scheme as defined for atoms applies to type constraints when a process context name $pk occurs exactly twice in the rule. For example, p($n) :- $n>$z, 0($z) | ok can be abbreviated to p($n) :- $n>0 | ok.

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Typed Process Contexts †

A process context constrained in Guard is said to be a typed process context.

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Avoiding Infinite Rule Application †

A constraint of the form uniq($p1, ..., $pn) succeeds if each $pk is a ground structure (connected graph with exactly one free link; see below) and the rule has not been applied to the tuple $p1, ..., $pn before.

As a special case of n=0, uniq succeeds if the rule in question has not been used before. The uniq() test is a general tool for avoiding infinite application of rules whose right-hand side is a super(multi)set of the left-hand side.

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Guard Library †

The following type constraints can be used in guards. The + (input) sign preceding a process context name means that the name should appear in the head, while the - (output) sign means that the name should not appear in the head.

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Type checking †

int(+$i)
check if $i[X] is an integer.
float(+$f)
check if $f[X] is a floating-point number.
unary(+$u)
check if $u[X] is a unary atom. Note that int and float are subtypes of unary.
ground(+$g)
check if $g[X1,...,Xn] (n>0) is a connected graph whose free links are exactly X1,...,Xn. Note that unary is a subtype of ground.
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Comparison †

'='(+$u,+$v)
check if $u[X1,...,Xn] and $v[Y1,...,Yn] are connected graphs with the same structure.
'\='(+$u,+$v)
check if $u[X1,...,Xn] and $v[Y1,...,Ym] are connected graphs with different structures.
'=='(+$u,+$v)
check if $u[X] and $v[Y] are unary atoms with the same name.
'\=='(+$u,+$v)
check if $u[X] and $v[Y] are unary atoms with different names (if either of them are not unary, the check fails.)
'<.'(+$float,+$float)
float comparison; also: '>.', '=<.', '>=.', '=:=.', '=\=.'.
'<'(+$int,+$int)
integer comparison; also: '>', '=<', '>=', '=:=', '=\='.
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Assignment †

'='(+$u,-$v)
make sure that $u[X] and $v[Y] are unary atoms with the same name.
'='(-$u,+$v)
same as above.
int(+$float,-$int)
cast to int.
float(+$int,-$float)
cast to float.
345(-$int)
defined for every integer (not only with 345).
'-3.14'(-$float)
defined for every float.
'+'(+$int,+$int,-$int)
integer operation; also: '-', '*', '/', mod.
'+.'(+$float,+$float,-$float)
float operation; also: '-.', '*.', '/.'.
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Others †

uniq(+$g1,...,+$gn)
uniqueness constraint; checks if the rule has not been applied to the tuple $g1[X1], ..., $gn[Xn] (n>=0).
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