LogicKit

LogicKit is a Prolog-like language, distributed in the form of a Swift Embedded Domain Specific Language (EDSL).

Short paper: LogicKit: bringing logic programming to swift

Motivation

Prolog is a general purpose logic programming language. A program is expressed in terms of relations, and computation in terms of queries over these relations. The beauty of logic programming is that we no longer have to tell a computer how to compute a result, but only describe the constraints it should respect. For instance, the following Prolog snippet finds all the pairs of operands whose sum is 2.

add(zero, Y, Y).
add(succ(X), Y, Z) :-
  add(X, succ(Y), Z).

?- add(X, Y, succ(succ(zero))).

Writing programs this way is arguably quite interesting. However, just as any other paradigm, logic programming isn't a fit-them-all solution. For instance, algorithms that are easily expressed in an imperative way often prove to be difficult to write in a functional logic programming style. This is why most modern programming languages, like Swift, are all about miying paradigms.

So why not bringing logic programming into the mix as well! With LogicKit, the above Prolog example can be rewritten entirely in Swift:

let zero: Term = "zero"
let x: Term = .var("x")
let y: Term = .var("y")
let z: Term = .var("z")

let kb: KnowledgeBase = [
   .fact("add", zero, y, y),
   .fact("add", .fact("succ", x), y, z) |-
     .fact("add", x, .fact("succ", y), z),
]

var answers = kb.ask(.fact("add", x, y, .fact("succ", .fact("succ", zero))))
for result in answers.prefix(3) {
  print(result)
}

Getting Started

The following is a quick Getting Started introduction the installation and use of LogicKit that only brushes over the library. You may refer want to refer to the User Manual for more details.

Quick tutorial

Like Prolog, LogicKit revolves around a knowledge base (or database), against which one can make queries. There are four constructs in LogicKit:

• facts (Term.fact(_:_:)) denote predicates and propositions,
• rules (Term.rule(_:_:_:)) denote conditional facts,
• literals (Term.lit(_:)) that denote atomic values, and
• variables (Term.var(_:)) that act as placeholders for other terms.

Knowledge bases are nothing more than a collection of such constructs:

let kb: KnowledgeBase = [
  .fact("is effective against", .fact("water"), .fact("fire")),
  .fact("is effective against", .fact("fire"), .fact("grass")),
  .fact("is effective against", .fact("grass"), .fact("water")),

  .fact("has type", .fact("Bulbasaur"), .fact("grass")),
  .fact("has type", .fact("Squirtle"), .fact("water")),
  .fact("has type", .fact("Charmander"), .fact("fire")),
]

The above knowledge base only makes use of facts and propositions. It states for instance that water is effective against fire, or that Squirtle has type water. One can query such knowledge base as follows:

var answers = kb.ask(.fact("has type", .fact("Squirtle"), .fact("water")))

Since there might be several answers to a single query, Knowledge.ask(_:logger:) doesn't return a single yes/no answer. Instead, it returns a sequence whose each element denote one correct answer. If the sequence is empty, then there isn't any solution.

print("Squirtle has type water:", answers.next() != nil)
// Prints "Squirtle has type water: true"

Being able to query our knowledge base this way is nice, but only gets us so far. What's more interesting is to use LogicKit to make deductions. Let's add a rule to our knowledge base:

.rule("is stronger", .var("x"), .var("y")) {
  .fact("has type", .var("x"), .var("tx")) &&
  .fact("has type", .var("y"), .var("ty")) &&
  .fact("is effective against", .var("tx"), .var("ty"))
}

This rule states that a Pokemon x is stronger than a Pokemon y if the type of x is effective against that of y. Now we can ask things like:

var answers = kb.ask(.fact("is stronger", .fact("Charmander"), .fact("Bulbasaur")))

or even more interestingly:

var answers = kb.ask(.fact("is stronger", .var("a"), .var("b")))

Note that because the query involves variables, not only are we interested to know if it is satisfiable, but also for what binding of a and b. Well, in fact each element of the sequence returned by Knowledge.ask(_:logger:) denotes such binding:

for binding in answers {
  let a = binding["a"]!
  let b = binding["b"]!
  print("\(a) is stronger than \(b)")
}
// Prints "Bulbasaur is stronger than Squirtle"
// Prints "Squirtle is stronger than Charmander"
// Prints "Charmander is stronger than Bulbasaur"

Note that since LogicKit is an EDSL, nothing prevents us from using the full power of Swift to make our definitions more readable:

let bulbasaur: Term = "Bulbasaur"
let squirtle: Term = "Squirtle"
let charmander: Term = "Charmander"

infix operator !>
func !>(lhs: Term, rhs: Term) -> Term {
  return .fact("is stronger", lhs, rhs)
}

let kb: KnowledgeBase = [
  bulbasaur  !> squirtle,
  squirtle   !> charmander,
  charmander !> bulbasaur,
]

var answers = kb.ask(bulbasaur !> squirtle)

LogicKit offers a bunch of syntax sugars to improve the legibility of your code. Make sure to check the User Manual for a comprehensive documentation.

Builtins types

Here a list of the builtins types you can use directly in LogicKit:

Example on how to use List.from:

let list = List.from(elements: [1,2,3].map(Nat.from))
// Or
let list = List.from(elements: [Nat.from(1), Nat.from(2), Nat.from(3)])

Native predicates

Native predicates are an experimental feature that allows Swift functions to act as logic predicates. While they cannot be used to infer the value of a logic variable, they can be used to check if a particular binding satisfies some properties. A common pattern is to use native predicates to define the body of a rule, so that it can be defined in terms of a Swift predicate:

let isTextOutputStream = "isTextOutputStream"/1
let a: Term = .var("a")
let kb: KnowledgeBase = [
  isTextOutputStream(a) |- .native { t in
    t["a"]?.extractValue() is TextOutputStream
  }
]

Installation

LogicKit is distributed in the form of a Swift package and can be integrated with the Swift Package Manager.

Start by creating a new package (unless you already have one):

mkdir MyLogicProgram
cd MyLogicProgram
swift package init --type executable

Then add LogicKit as a dependency to your package, from your Package.swift file:

import PackageDescription

let package = Package(
  name: "MyLogicProgram",
  dependencies: [
    .package(url: "https://github.com/kyouko-taiga/LogicKit", .branch("master")),
  ],
  targets: [
    .target(name: "MyLogicProgram", dependencies: ["LogicKit"]),
  ]
)

The master branch of the LogicKit always refers to the latest stable version of LogicKit, so using .branch("master") to specify the dependency location guarantees you'll always pull the latest version. See Swift Package Manager's documentation for alternative configurations.

Make sure the Swift Package Manager is able to properly download, compile and link LogicKit with the following command:

swift build

If everything goes well, you should then be able to import LogicKit in your own Swift sources:

import LogicKit

// Your code here ...

For Xcode users: You can use the Swift Package Manager to create an Xcode project. Once you've added LogicKit has a dependency and compiled your project at least once, type the command:

swift package generate-xcodeproj

It will create a MyLogicProgram.xcodeproj directory you can edit with Xcode. The schemes of the auto-generated package might require some manual configuration. Please refer to Xcode's documentation for more information on that end.

License

LogicKit is licensed under the MIT License.