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The use of constraints had its scientific and commercial breakthrough in the 1990s. Programming with constraints makes it possible to model and specify problems with uncertain, incomplete information and to solve combi natorial problems, as they are abundant in industry and commerce, such as scheduling, planning, transportation, resource allocation, layout, design, and analysis. This book is a short, concise, and complete presentation of constraint programming and reasoning, covering theoretical foundations, algorithms, implementations, examples, and applications. It is based on more than a decade of experience in teaching and research about this subject. This book is intended primarily for graduate students, researchers, and practitioners in diverse areas of computer science and related fields, including programming languages, computational logic, symbolic computation, and ar tificial intelligence. The book is complemented by a web-page with teaching material, software, links, and more. We take the reader on a step-by-step journey through the world of constraint-based programming and constraint reasoning. Feel free to join in ... Acknowledgements Thorn thanks his wife Andrea and his daughter Anna - for everything. He dedicates his contribution to the book to the memory of his mother, Grete. Slim thanks his wife N abila and his daughters Shirine and Amira for their ongoing support and patience.
Constraint Handling Rules (CHR) is both a theoretical formalism and a practical programming language. This book provides an overview of CHR research based on a reviewed selection of doctoral theses. After a basic introduction to CHR, the book presents results from three different areas of CHR research: compilation and optimization, execution strategies, and program analysis. The chapters offer in-depth treatises of selected subjects, supported by a wealth of examples. The book is ideal for master students, lecturers, and researchers.
The non-deterministic rule-based programming language of Constraint Handling Rules (CHR) features a remarkable combination of desirable properties: a foundation in classical logic, powerful analysis methods for deciding program properties – especially confluence – and an efficient execution model. Upon a closer look, we observe several limitations to this asset. In this thesis, we introduce several concepts to amend for these short- comings. Firstly, we propose an unusually concise formulation of the two most important semantic interpretations of CHR. Secondly, we analyse the relationship between the major diverging interpretations of CHR. Finally, we found CHR on intuitionistic linear logic.
Constraint Programming is a problem-solving paradigm that establishes a clear distinction between two pivotal aspects of a problem: (1) a precise definition of the constraints that define the problem to be solved and (2) the algorithms and heuristics enabling the selection of decisions to solve the problem. It is because of these capabilities that Constraint Programming is increasingly being employed as a problem-solving tool to solve scheduling problems. Hence the development of Constraint-Based Scheduling as a field of study. The aim of this book is to provide an overview of the most widely used Constraint-Based Scheduling techniques. Following the principles of Constraint Programming, the book consists of three distinct parts: The first chapter introduces the basic principles of Constraint Programming and provides a model of the constraints that are the most often encountered in scheduling problems. Chapters 2, 3, 4, and 5 are focused on the propagation of resource constraints, which usually are responsible for the "hardness" of the scheduling problem. Chapters 6, 7, and 8 are dedicated to the resolution of several scheduling problems. These examples illustrate the use and the practical efficiency of the constraint propagation methods of the previous chapters. They also show that besides constraint propagation, the exploration of the search space must be carefully designed, taking into account specific properties of the considered problem (e.g., dominance relations, symmetries, possible use of decomposition rules). Chapter 9 mentions various extensions of the model and presents promising research directions.
This volume contains the papers presented at the 20th International Conference on Logic Programming,held in Saint-Malo,France,September 6-10,2004.Since the ?rst meeting in this series, held in Marseilles in 1982, ICLP has been the premier international conference for presenting research in logic programming. This year, we received 70 technical papers from countries all over the world, and the Program Committee accepted 28 of them for presentation;they are included in this volume. A stand-by-your-poster session took place during the conference. It served as a forum for presenting work in a more informal and interactive setting. Abstracts of the 16 posters selected by the Program Committee are included in this volume as well. The conference program also included invited talks and invited tutorials. We were privileged to have talks by three outstanding researchers and excellent speakers: Nachum Dershowitz (Tel Aviv University, Israel) talked on Ter- nation by Abstraction, Michael Gelfond (Texas Tech University, USA) on - swer Set Programming and the Design of Deliberative Agents,andG ́ erard Huet (INRIA, France) on Non-determinism Lessons. Two of the invited talks appear in these proceedings. The tutorials covered topics of high interest to the logic programming community: Ilkka Niemel ̈ a gave a tutorial on The Implementation of Answer Set Solvers, Andreas Podelskion Tree Automata in Program Analysis and Veri?cation, and Guillermo R. Simari on Defeasible Logic Programming and Belief Revision. Satellite workshops made the conference even more interesting. Six workshops collocated with ICLP 2004: - CICLOPS2004, Colloquium on Implementation of Constraint and Logic Programming Systems, organized by Manuel Carro. - COLOPS2004, 2nd International Workshop on Constraint & Logic Progr- ming in Security, organized by Frank Valencia. - MultiCPL2004, 3rd International Workshop on Multiparadigm Constraint, organized by Petra Hofstedt. - Teach LP2004,1st International Workshop on Teaching Logic Programming, organized by Dietmar Seipel.
Sam Brooks, a young superintendent with ProCon Builders, has been given responsibility for the largest and most complicated project of his career. He struggles with all of the common difficulties in construction -- lack of communication, coordination issues, and other kinds of wasteful occurrences that rob his project of time and money, while leaving him and his team frustrated and overworked. Luckily, his friend, mentor, and co-worker, Alan Phillips, brings the benefit of his experience and his knowledge of Lean Construction tools and processes to help Sam learn valuable skills for improving the operation of his project. Together, Sam and Alan discuss the merits and explore the practical applications of: Daily Huddles Visual Communication The "Eight Wastes" Managing Constraints Pull Planning The Last Planner System(TM) Percent Plan Complete
Quality assurance and accreditation in analytical chemistry laboratories is an important issue on the national and international scale. The book presents currently used methods to assure the quality of analytical results and it describes accreditation procedures for the mutual recognition of these results. The book describes in detail the accreditation systems in 13 European countries and the present situation in the United States of America. The editor also places high value on accreditation and certification practice and on the relevant legislation in Europe. The appendix lists invaluable information on important European accreditation organizations.
Alex Rogo is a harried plant manager working ever more desperately to try and improve performance. His factory is rapidly heading for disaster. So is his marriage. He has ninety days to save his plant - or it will be closed by corporate HQ, with hundreds of job losses. It takes a chance meeting with a colleague from student days - Jonah - to help him break out of conventional ways of thinking to see what needs to be done. Described by Fortune as a 'guru to industry' and by Businessweek as a 'genius', Eliyahu M. Goldratt was an internationally recognized leader in the development of new business management concepts and systems. This 20th anniversary edition includes a series of detailed case study interviews by David Whitford, Editor at Large, Fortune Small Business, which explore how organizations around the world have been transformed by Eli Goldratt's ideas. The story of Alex's fight to save his plant contains a serious message for all managers in industry and explains the ideas which underline the Theory of Constraints (TOC) developed by Eli Goldratt. Written in a fast-paced thriller style, The Goal is the gripping novel which is transforming management thinking throughout the Western world. It is a book to recommend to your friends in industry - even to your bosses - but not to your competitors!
