documents/tutorial/umsterm.tex

% BEGIN LICENSE BLOCK
% Version: CMPL 1.1
%
% The contents of this file are subject to the Cisco-style Mozilla Public
% License Version 1.1 (the "License"); you may not use this file except
% in compliance with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License
% at www.eclipse-clp.org/license.
%
% Software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS"
% basis, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.  See
% the License for the specific language governing rights and limitations
% under the License.
%
% The Original Code is  The ECLiPSe Constraint Logic Programming System.
% The Initial Developer of the Original Code is  Cisco Systems, Inc.
% Portions created by the Initial Developer are
% Copyright (C) 2006 Cisco Systems, Inc.  All Rights Reserved.
%
% Contributor(s):
%
% END LICENSE BLOCK

\chapter{Review of Terminology}
\label{terminology}
\label{chapterm}

General terms used in Prolog and \eclipse.
\begin{description}
% -------------------------------------------------------------------
\item[Arity]
\index{arity}
Arity is the number of arguments to a term.
Atoms are considered as functors with zero arity.
The notation {\it Name/Arity} is used to specify a functor of name
{\it Name} with arity {\it Arity}.
\index{Name/Arity}

% -------------------------------------------------------------------
\item[Atom]
An arbitrary name chosen by the user to represent objects from the
problem domain.
A Prolog {\it atom} corresponds to an identifier in other languages.
\index{atom}

% -------------------------------------------------------------------
\item[Atomic]
An atom, string or a number. A terms which does not contain other terms.
\index{atomic}

% -------------------------------------------------------------------
\item[Body]
A clause {\it body} can either be of the form
\begin{verbatim}
Goal_1, Goal_2, ..., Goal_k
\end{verbatim}
or simply
\index{clause!regular}
\begin{verbatim}
Goal
\end{verbatim}
\index{clause!iterative}
Each {\it Goal_i} must be  a callable term.

% -------------------------------------------------------------------
\item[Built-in Predicates]
\index{procedure!built_in}
These are predicates provided by the
{\eclipse} system, they are either written in Prolog or in the implementation
language (usually ``C'').


% -------------------------------------------------------------------
\item[Clause]
\index{clause}
See program clause or goal.

% -------------------------------------------------------------------
\item[Callable Term]
\index{callable term}
A {\it callable term} is either a compound term or an atom.

% -------------------------------------------------------------------
\item[Compound Term]
\index{compound term}
Compound terms are of the form
\begin{verbatim}
f(t_1, t_2, ..., t_n)
\end{verbatim}
where {\it f} is the {\it functor} of the compound term
\index{functor}
and {\it t_i} are terms, n is its arity. Lists and Pairs are also
compound terms.

% -------------------------------------------------------------------
\item[Fact]
\index{fact}
\index{clause!unit}
A fact or {\it unit clause} is a term of the form:
\begin{verbatim}
Head.
\end{verbatim}
\index{head!clause}
where {\it Head} is a structure or an atom.
\index{clause!head}
A fact may be considered to be a rule whose body is always {\it true}.

% -------------------------------------------------------------------
\item[Functor]
\index{functor}
A functor is characterised by its name which is an atom, and its arity
which is its number of arguments.

% -------------------------------------------------------------------
\item[Goal Clause]
\index{clause!goal}
\index{goal}
See {\it query}.

% -------------------------------------------------------------------
\item[Ground]
\index{ground}
A term is ground when it does not contain any uninstantiated variables.

% -------------------------------------------------------------------
\item[Head]
\index{head}
A head is a structure or an atom.

% -------------------------------------------------------------------
\item[Instantiated]
\index{instantiated}
A variable is instantiated when it has been bound to an atomic or a
compound term as opposed to
being {\it uninstantiated} or {\it free}.  See also {\it ground}.


% -------------------------------------------------------------------
\item[List]
\index{list}
A list is a special type of term within Prolog. It is a
recursive data structure consisting of {\it pairs} (whose tails are lists).
A {\tt list} is either the atom {\tt []} called {\tt nil} as in LISP,
or a pair whose tail is a list.
The notation :
\begin{verbatim}
[a , b , c]
\end{verbatim}
is shorthand for:
\begin{verbatim}
[a | [b | [c | []]]]
\end{verbatim}
\index{nil}
\index{[]}


% -------------------------------------------------------------------
\item[Name/Arity]
\index{Name/Arity}
The notation {\tt Name/Arity} is used to specify a functor of name
{\bf Name} with arity {\bf Arity}.

% -------------------------------------------------------------------
\item[Predicate, Procedure]
\index{predicate}
\index{procedure}
The most important unit of a Prolog or {\eclipse} program.
Defined by the set of clauses whose {\bf Head} has the same functor.
Although often used as synonyms, the word {\it predicate}
highlights more the declarative meaning while the word {\it procedure}
reminds of the operational behaviour of the definition.


% -------------------------------------------------------------------
\item[Program Clause]
A {\it program clause} or {\it clause} is either the term
\index{clause}
\index{program clause}
\index{clause!program}
\begin{verbatim}
Head :- Body.
\end{verbatim}
\index{body}
i.e. a compound term with the functor {\it :-/2}, or only a fact.

% -------------------------------------------------------------------
\item[Query]
A query  has the same form as {\it Body}
and is also called a {\it goal}.
\index{query}
Such clauses occur mainly as input to the top level Prolog loop
and in files being compiled, then they have the form
\begin{verbatim}
:- Goal_1, ..., Goal_k.
\end{verbatim}
or
\begin{verbatim}
?- Goal_1, ..., Goal_k.
\end{verbatim}

% -------------------------------------------------------------------
\item[Structures]
Compound terms which are not pairs are also called {\it structures}.
\index{structure}

% -------------------------------------------------------------------
\item[Term]
A {\it term} is the basic data type in Prolog.
\index{term}
It is either a {\it variable}, a {\it constant},
i.e. an {\it atom}, a {\it number} or a {\it string},
\index{string}
\index{number}
or a {\it compound term}.

% -------------------------------------------------------------------
\item[+X]
\index{+X}
Used in predicate descriptions, this denotes an input argument.
Such an argument must be instantiated before the predicate is called.

% -------------------------------------------------------------------
\item[$-$X]
\index{$-$X}
Used in predicate descriptions, this denotes an output argument.
Such an argument must be not instantiated before the predicate is called.

% -------------------------------------------------------------------
\item[?X]
\index{?X}
Used in predicate descriptions, this denotes an input or an output argument.
Such an argument may be either
instantiated or not when the predicate is called.

% -------------------------------------------------------------------
\end{description}