Re: On production rules and phase I&II

From: Sandro Hawke <sandro@w3.org>
Subject: Re: On production rules and phase I&II 
Date: Wed, 08 Mar 2006 13:49:56 -0500

> > There may be hidden difference difference here in semantics. Here I  
> > am referring specifically to RETE rather than OPS5
> > 
> > A precondition in a RETE rule is closer to a Prolog-style pattern  
> > match than a predication. I.e., in (using my own made on the fly  
> > notation)
> > 
> >    when parent(x,y) and ancestor(y,z) assert ancestor(x,z)
> > 
> > there is no sense in which, in RETE land, parent(x,y) can be said to  
> > be true. It is a pattern that should be matched by an object in the  
> > set of objects managed by the RETE engine.
> > 
> >   Re-expressing this in a form that is closer to RETE-speak, you get
> > 
> >    when {parent = x, child=y} and {ancestor=y, descendant=z}
> > 	assert {ancestor=x, descendant=z}
> > 
> > highlights this a little more clearly (I hope) The expressions  
> > {parent=x,child=y} etc are patterns that are applied to the objects  
> > in the pool.
> > 
> > I.e., the semantics of RETE is inherently operational - the RETE  
> > inference rules express the kinds operations you can make on a set of  
> > objects.
> > 
> > As we know, we *can* model such a semantics, in effect constructing a  
> > denotational semantics for RETE. But, this is not the same thing as  
> > mapping RETE rules into predicate logic; any mapping has to carry  
> > with it the operational semantics of RETE otherwise it will not be  
> > faithful to the RETE semantics.
> 
> That's quite clearly stated, thank you.  Can you give an example of a
> RETE ruleset where the only actions are assert and where the end results
> would be different between using the rules via RETE and using them via
> the trivial mapping to depth-limited pure prolog, or FOL given to a
> resolution theorem prover?
> 
>      - sandro

Well, I, for one, don't see much, if any, difference between the operational
and the denotational semantics for this kind of rule.  (On the other hand,
removals do have a very operational semantics.)


peter

Received on Wednesday, 8 March 2006 20:07:30 UTC