The npl language

In the use of npl there are basically 4 stages:

  • Define terms;
  • Build facts and rules with those terms, and add them to a knowledge base (a.k.a. kb);
  • Extend the kb to all logical consequences;
  • Query the kb.

In the example in the home page, the first four lines are defining terms (person, mike, sue, loves) using predefined terms (thing, verb), and the fifth to seventh lines are a fact and a rule built from those terms. If we extend the kb holding the program, and query it, we will find the, in this case, only conclussion: sue loves mike.

Basic programming elements

npl provides three basic elements for writing programs: atomic elements, complex elements for adding to the kb, and orders (commands) to manipulate the kb in different ways.

We also have macros, but macros are another language built on top of npl, and we will consider them elsewhere.

atomic elements

There are several types of atomic elements with which to build complex elements. The first distinction we make is among logical and non-logical elements, (following the terminology of first order logic). Logical elements are all predefined, identified by reserved words of the language. Non-logical elements are defined by the programmer.

Logical elements

Among the logical elements, we can distinguish several classes:

  • Punctuation: dots separate sentences, commas are variously used, and spacing separate elements;
  • Logical connectives: conjunction (;) and implication (if: ... then: ...), used to build rules, that are a class of complex element;
  • Variables, again used in the construction of rules;
  • Relations, mainly set and arithmetic relations; the set relations used to define non-logical elements, and the arithmetic relations as conditions in rules;
  • Operators, mainly the predicate operator [ ... ], which we will shortly touch again, and arithmetic operators;
  • Individuals: the numbers, and a few others like noun, verb, thing, exists, number.

This is not an exhaustive listing of predefined atomic elements, for example we have not mentioned any time (or string?) related element. It is, however, an exhaustive list of classes of atomic elements.

Non-logical elements

The non-logical elements are all of the “individual” class, which we will in general call “terms”. The main atribute of terms is that they can match variables in rules.

We can distinguish a few types of terms. We have verbs: exists and any number of non-logical verbs derived from it; nouns: thing, and any number of non-logical nouns derived from it; proper names, all non-logical; and we have numbers. We also have the “metanouns”: noun, verb, and number.

Complex elements

There are a few classes of complex elements available to give shape to the knowledge in the kb.

Definitions

First, we have constructs that allow us to define new non-logical terms. There are three types of term that we can define: verbs, nouns, and names. For each type we have a different construct. An example of a name definition might be john isa person, where we define a term john, and assert (through isa) that it “belongs to” the term (or “is a”) person, of type noun.

Predicates

Then we have predicate elements. Predicates are composed with the predicate operator [], enclosing a verb and 0 or more objects. These objects can be terms of any type. Predicates are themselves terms, and can thus match variables in rules, or appear as objects in other predicates. In the example in the home page, a predicate would be loves sue. This would be missing the [] operator, that is needed for when predicates are used as objects in other predicates; so a more correct form would be [loves sue]. But this is not yet totally correct syntax. We can have more than one object in a predicate, and, in different facts, the same verb can form predicates with a different number of objects. Thus, we need to label the objects. To see this, consider that we have a “goes” verb that takes 2 objects to form a predicate, a “from” object and a “towards” object. And consider that we want to use this verb to form a fact where we only talk about where someone goes, and not where she comes from. Using “[goes madrid]” would not tell us whether “madrid” is a “towards” or a “from” object. So, the syntactically correct form would be [loves who sue]. Obviously, we would have to incorporate the who label in the definition of the loves verb, and in the rule.

Facts

Then we have fact elements. Facts are composed of a subject, a predicate, and an optional time. The subject can be any atomic term, and the predicate has to be a predicate term. We will leave time out of this introduction. In the example in the home page, a fact would be mike loves sue. Incorporating the corrections explained for predicates, we would have mike [loves who sue].

Rules

Then we have rule elements. Rules are composed of a set of complex elements that we call the conditions, and another set of complex elements, the consecuences. Conditions and consecuences can contain variables, and all variables in the consecuences must appear in the conditions. They can be definitions, facts, arithmetic conditions, or several other special constructs. When we extend the kb, asserted facts match conditions in rules, and when all conditions in a rule are satisfied, its consecuences are asserted.

Questions

Then we have questions, that are basically correspond to standalone rule conditions, and that return the sentences in the kb that match them.

Orders

Finally, we have orders, that do not have any common form. An example of an order is extend, that extends the kb.

Language reference

Next I’m going to describe the npl language in a bit more detail going through its BNF grammar. If in the previous introduction I have gone from bottom to top element, here I will go top down. To illustrate the different constructs of the language, I will be refering to pieces from these tests.


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