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Debugging systems for constraint programming

Objective

The objective of this project is to define, to implement and assess novel and effective debugging systems for Constraint Programming.

The expected results of the project include:
- novel techniques of high level debugging,
- integration of these novel techniques into industrial CP platforms,
- assessment of these techniques in industrial applications,

They will allow industrialists to apply this technology readily to applications that can be even more complex in domains such as scheduling, planning, design or configuration.

Specifically, DISCIPL will extend three paradigms currently used in advanced debugging:
% - Declarative debugging
- Assertion based methods
- Graphics based methods

The industrial vendor partners will be present throughout the project to allow the academic results to be taken-up in the form of commercial products and training.

Conventional programming techniques are not well suited for solving many highly combinatorial industrial problems, like scheduling, decision making, resource allocation or planning. Constraint Programming (CP), an emerging software technology, offers an original approach allowing for efficient and flexible solving of complex problems, through combined implementation of various constraint solvers and expert heuristics. Its applications are increasingly fielded in various industries.

One of the main features of CP is a new approach to software production: the same program is progressively improved at each step of the development cycle, from the first prototype until the final product. This makes debugging the cornerstone of CP technology.

DISCIPL considers debugging in the broad sense: it concerns both validation aspects (to build a correct application) as well as methodological aspects (to find the best solution to a problem by better understanding of constraint solver behaviour). To satisfy these objectives, tools must locate and explain bugs, and graphic tools must help interpreting program behaviour and results. Existing tools reveal to be ineffective in most industrial situations and tools developed for imperative or functional programming are not adapted to the context of CP. The main reasons are that the huge numbers of variables and constraints makes the computation state difficult to understand, and that the non deterministic execution increases drastically the number of computation states which must be analysed.

Fields of science

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Call for proposal

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Funding Scheme

CSC - Cost-sharing contracts

Coordinator

Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et Automatique
EU contribution
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Address
Domaine de Voluceau-Rocquencourt
78153 Le Chesnay
France

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Participants (7)

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Last update: 6 October 1999

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Permalink: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/FP4_22532

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