Extending Object-Oriented Languages by Declarative Specifications of Complex Objects using Answer-Set Programming

Abstract

Many applications require complexly structured data objects. Developing new or adapting existing algorithmic solutions for creating such objects can be a non-trivial and costly task if the considered objects are subject to different application-specific constraints. Often, however, it is comparatively easy to declaratively describe the required objects. In this paper, we propose to use answer-set programming (ASP)---a well-established declarative programming paradigm from the area of artificial intelligence---for instantiating objects in standard object-oriented programming languages. In particular, we extend Java with declarative specifications from which the required objects can be automatically generated using available ASP solver technology.