Re: model theory of error

On 10 Jan 2008, at 14:49, Michael Kifer wrote:

>> Michael Kifer wrote:
>>>
>>> It is clear like mud.
>>
>> Ok...
>>
>>> You still fail to understand that we are supposed to
>>> give formal semantics: model-theoretic, denotational, operational  
>>> in that
>>> order.
>>
>> Let me try another angle to attempt to get my message through.
>>
>> How do commonly used implementations of basic logic rule languages  
>> (e.g.
>> various implementations of Prolog, datalog, whatever) handle the  
>> case of
>> evaluated functions or predicates when some argument is out of there
>> domain of definition?
>
> Usually they issue an error. But they do not have a model theory  
> for it,
> and they do not write a document for W3C saying "this is THE  
> semantics of
> ...".  They give the semantics in conference papers and do not include
> builtins in it.

Although, see:
	http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/apt92theory.html

The issue of course is how to describe *existing* systems correctly.  
I think that's very hard (and probably would have to look for  
inspiration at programming language semantics like domain theory).

However, as I understand it, Michael is offering a "sensible default"  
not a hard requirement. One way to think about it is if you had to  
deviate from your system's *actual* error raising behavior, what's  
the most sensible alternative? Consider sensibility along the  
dimensions of implementability, user surprise, etc.

So, let's say I have a production rule system (R) which adds an error  
tuple to the WM on errors and a Prolog system (P) which throws an  
exception. Now suppose I have a rule set, K, that I developed with R  
in mind. Suppose it is syntactically RIF representable but uses built- 
ins. Consider the three scenarios:

1) If I write K out to K(rif) and read it back into R, I should get  
the same answers from R whether I query K or K(Rif). Including when  
there are errors.

2) If I write K out to K(rif) and read it in to P, I'll get different  
answers, cause sometimes I'll never get an answer to
	?- error(X, ThrownBy, Message)

3) If I write K out to K(rif) and read it into P or to K *and flip  
the switch to use option (a)* semantics, then presuming both systems  
are sound and complete for RIF + (a), they'll return the same answers.

If P or K don't have that switch to flip, then they are not ever  
compliant *with that part of rif* and that will be visible in their  
conformance profile. If you write K out to K(rif) then you are not  
ensured to get exactly R's behavior in *any* RIF compliant system,  
but if R's semantics eventually got speced out, one could add it as  
an option.

So, I think Christian and Michael, if they disagree, disagree on how  
the compliance/conformance stuff works.

Cheers,
Bijan.

Received on Thursday, 10 January 2008 16:03:25 UTC