F. Sadri – författare

Logic and object-orientation have come to be recognized as being among the most powerful paradigms for modeling information systems. The term "information systems" is used here in a very general context to denote database systems, software development systems, knowledge­ base systems, proof support systems, distributed systems and reactive systems. One of the most vigorously researched topics common to all information systems is "formal modeling". An elegant high-level abstraction applicable to both application domain and system domain concepts will always lead to a system design from "outside in"; that is, the aggregation of ideas is around real-life objects about which the system is to be designed. Formal methods \yhen applied with this view in mind, especially during early stages of system development, can lead to a formal reasoning on the intended properties, thus revealing system flaws that might otherwise be discovered much later. Logic in different styles and semantics is being used to model databases and their transactions; it is also used to specify concurrent, distributed, real-time, and reactive systems. ,The notion of "object" is central to the modeling of object­ oriented databases, as well as object-oriented design and programs in software engineering. Both database and software engineering communities have undoubtedly made important contributions to formalisms based on logic and objects. It is worthwhile bringing together the ideas developed by the two communities in isolation, and focusing on integrating their common strengths.

The workshop on "Formal Methods in Databases and Software Engineering" took place at Concordia University, Montreal, Canada, in May 1992. Most existing research tends to concentrate exclusively on formal methods in either databases or software engineering. This was the first in a proposed series of workshops specifically aimed at fostering interdisciplinary research between these two important fields. The workshop provided an opportunity for researchers and practitioners to discuss recent developments in an informal setting. This volume contains selected papers which have been expanded and edited for publication. The theme of the workshop was explored through a variety of topics, including: transaction logic programming; modelling uncertainty and incompleteness in databases; concept learning and data mining; efficient deduction and induction in knowledge-base systems; proof management and verification; temporal and real-time databases; object-oriented VDM; software engineering environments and object charts.

This volume spans the whole field of computational logic seen from the point of view of logic programming. The topics addressed range from issues concerning the development of programming languages in logic and the application of computational logic to real-life problems, to philosophical studies of the field at the other end of the spectrum. The articles presented cover the contributions of computational logic to databases and artificial intelligence with particular emphasis on automated reasoning, reasoning about actions and change, natural languages, and learning. Together with its companion volume, LNAI 2408, this book commemorates the 60th birthday of Bob Kowalski as one of the founders of and contributors to computational logic.