Methods and apparatus for integration of declarative rule-based processing with procedural programming in a digital data-processing environment
First Claim
1. A method of integrating a plurality of procedural instructions in a procedural computational system with a plurality of declarative rules in a declarative computational system, the method comprising:
- for each of said procedural instructions operating on one or more variables, determining whether any of said variables participate in at least one of said declarative rules by employing a hash table indexed by variable names, andupon execution, within said procedural computational system, of a procedural instruction changing a variable participating in a declarative rule, detecting said changing variable and notifying said declarative computational system using a change tracking system that is in communicative coupling with said procedural computational system and said declarative computational system, and updating, within said declarative computational system, other variables associated with said rule so as to maintain a relationship imposed by said rule among said variables,wherein said notifying said declarative computational system and said updating of other variables is performed prior to execution, within said procedural computational system, of other procedural instructions, andwherein said updating of said other variables includes identifying, within said declarative computational system, one or more other declarative rules in which said other variables participate, and propagating, within said declarative computational system, said updating of said other variables to said one or more other declarative rules so as to maintain relationships imposed by said one or more other declarative rules among said variables.
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Abstract
The present invention provides methods and systems for integrating a procedural computational model with a declarative computational model. For example, in one aspect, the present invention provides a method for integrating a plurality of procedural instructions in a procedural computational system with a plurality of declarative rules in a declarative computational system. In such a method, for each of the procedural instructions operating on one or more variables, a hash table indexed by variable names is utilized to determine whether any of these variables participate in at least one of the declarative rules. Upon execution of a procedural instruction that changes a variable participating in a declarative rule, other variables associated with the rule are updated so as to maintain a relationship imposed by the rule among the variables. The updating of the other variables is performed prior to execution of other procedural instructions.
478 Citations
20 Claims
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1. A method of integrating a plurality of procedural instructions in a procedural computational system with a plurality of declarative rules in a declarative computational system, the method comprising:
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for each of said procedural instructions operating on one or more variables, determining whether any of said variables participate in at least one of said declarative rules by employing a hash table indexed by variable names, and upon execution, within said procedural computational system, of a procedural instruction changing a variable participating in a declarative rule, detecting said changing variable and notifying said declarative computational system using a change tracking system that is in communicative coupling with said procedural computational system and said declarative computational system, and updating, within said declarative computational system, other variables associated with said rule so as to maintain a relationship imposed by said rule among said variables, wherein said notifying said declarative computational system and said updating of other variables is performed prior to execution, within said procedural computational system, of other procedural instructions, and wherein said updating of said other variables includes identifying, within said declarative computational system, one or more other declarative rules in which said other variables participate, and propagating, within said declarative computational system, said updating of said other variables to said one or more other declarative rules so as to maintain relationships imposed by said one or more other declarative rules among said variables. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. A method of unifying one or more declarative rules and a plurality of procedural instructions in a procedural computational system, the method comprising:
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upon execution, within said procedural computational system, of a procedural instruction that changes one or more variables, detecting said changes to said one or more variables and notifying a declarative computational system that is in communicative coupling with said procedural computational system using a change tracking system that is in communicative coupling with said procedural computational system and said declarative computational system, and updating, within said change tracking system, one or more other variables participating in one or more declarative rules so as to maintain relationships imposed by said one or more rules among said variables, wherein said updating of said one or more other variables is performed prior to execution of other procedural instructions, and wherein said updating of said one or more other variables includes identifying, within said declarative computational system, one or more other declarative rules in which said one or more other variables participate, and propagating, within said declarative computational system, said updating of said one or more other variables to said one or more other declarative rules so as to maintain relationships imposed by said one or more other declarative rules among said variables. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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Specification