LO and behold! Concurrent structured processes

Abstract

We introduce a novel concurrent logic programming language, which we call LO, based on an extension of Horn logic. This language enhances the process view of objects implementable in Horn-based concurrent logic programming languages with powerful capabilities for knowledge structuring, leading to a flexible form of variable-structure inheritance. The main novelty about LO is a new kind of OR-concurrency which is dual to the usual AND-concurrency and provides us with the notion of structured process. Such OR-concurrency can be nicely characterized with a sociological metaphor as modelling the internal distribution of tasks inside a complex organization; this complements the external cooperation among different entities accounted for by AND-concurrency.