Communications of the ACM
A feature constraint system for logic programming with entailment
FGCS'921 Selected papers of the conference on Fifth generation computer systems
A complete and recursive feature theory
Theoretical Computer Science
Combination of constraint solvers for free and quasi-free structures
Theoretical Computer Science - Special issue: rewriting systems and applications
Logical fiberings and polycontextural systems
FAIR '91 Proceedings of the International Workshop on Fundamentals of Artificial Intelligence Research
Combination of Constraint Solving Techniques: An Algebraic POint of View
RTA '95 Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Rewriting Techniques and Applications
On the Combination of Symbolic Constraints, Solution Domains, and Constraint Solvers
CP '95 Proceedings of the First International Conference on Principles and Practice of Constraint Programming
How to Win a Game with Features
CCL '94 Proceedings of the First International Conference on Constraints in Computational Logics
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In two earlier papers (Baader, Schulz, in: U. Montanari, F. Rossi (Eds.), Proc. CP'95 Springer Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 976, Springer, Berlin, pp. 380-397; Theoret. Comput. Sci 192 (1998) 107-161), the concept of "free amalgamation" has been introduced as a general methodology for interweaving solution structures for symbolic constraints, and it was shown how constraint solvers for two components can be lifted to a constraint solver for the free amalgam. Here we discuss a second general way for combining solution domains, called rational amalgamation. In praxis, rational amalgamation seems to be the preferred combination principle if the two solution structures to be combined are "rational" or "non-wellfounded" domains. It represents, e.g., the way how rational trees and rational lists are interwoven in the solution domain of Prolog III, and a variant has been used by W. Rounds for combining feature structures and hereditarily finite non-wellfounded sets. We show that rational amalgamation is a general combination principle, applicable to a large class of structures. As in the case of free amalgamation, constraint solvers for two component structures can be combined to a constraint solver for their rational amalgam. From this algorithmic point of view, rational amalgamation seems to be interesting since the combination technique for rational amalgamation avoids one source of non-determinism that is needed in the corresponding scheme for free amalgamation. Copyright 2001 Elsevier Science B.V.