elf/index.php - www.eclipse.org/proposals - Git at Google

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 <?php
 include_once($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] . "/projects/fragments/proposal-page-header.php");
 generate_header("Eclipse Logic Framework");
 ?>

 <h1>Eclipse Logic Framework (ELF)</h1>

 <h2>Introduction</h2>

 <p>Eclipse Logic Framework (ELF) is a proposed open source project under the
 Eclipse Technology Project.</p>
 <p>This proposal is in the Project Proposal Phase (as defined in the Eclipse
 Development Process document) and is written to declare its intent and scope.
 This proposal is written to solicit additional participation and input
 from the Eclipse community. You are invited to comment on and/or
 join the project. Please send all feedback to
 the <a href="http://www.eclipse.org/forums/eclipse.elf">ELF forum</a>.</p>

 <h2>Scope</h2>

 <p>Prolog (PROgramming LOGic) was developed in 1972 (although sources vary) by
 Alain Colmerauer and Phillipe Roussel, both of University of Aix-Marseille,
 France, in collaboration with Robert Kowalski of the University of Edinburgh,
 United Kingdom. While popular in the Artificial Intelligence community, which
 used it amongst other things for the development of expert systems and natural
 language processing, its significance has waxed and waned over time. Even though the
 language has been ISO standardized in 1995, it has never broken through in
 the computer industry in the way other languages have, especially when compared
 to the now ubiquitous Java, developed by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems
 and released in 1995.</p>
 <p>In 1996, Bart Demoen of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium, and Paul Tarau,
 at that time at the Université de Moncton, Canada, outlined a method to run Prolog
 programs on a Java virtual machine. A limited proof-of-concept implementation was
 made available under the moniker 'jProlog'. The idea was picked up again soon after
 by Mutsunori Banbara and Naoyuki Tamura of Kobe University, Japan, and developed
 into a feature-complete clean-room implementation under the moniker
 'Prolog Cafe' (http://kaminari.istc.kobe-u.ac.jp/PrologCafe/), of which the
 last update dates June 24th 2009.</p>
 <p>In 2002, Tobias Rho created the Prolog Development Tool (PDT),
 the first Eclipse-based IDE for working with SWI-Prolog, as part of his
 diploma thesis at the University of Bonn. Since then the PDT project has
 continuously evolved in its academic environment, led by Dr. Günter Kniesel,
 with contributions of Tobias Rho, Lukas Degener and Eva Stöwe. The PDT
  will be subsumed by the ELF, but for now the original project can still be
 found at http://roots.iai.uni-bonn.de/research/pdt/.</p>
 <p>With the advent of the Semantic Web, a new spin was put on the A.I. research
 accomplishments of the last 50 years. While Tim Berners Lee contended in 1998
 that a Semantic Web is not Artificial Intelligence, he did call it
 a 'language of logic'. Logic languages were designed with the specific
 purpose of making the expression of the solution to problems straightforward.
 Yet, Semantic Technologies are developed using popular contemporary languages,
 all of which are notoriously ill-suited for that very same purpose. Equally true,
 those (early) logic languages have become sidelined because they made many
 real-world everyday-programming tasks cumbersome.</p>
 <p>The ELF represents a renewed interest in the pursuit of practical logic
 programming.</p>

 <h2>Description</h2>

 <p>The Eclipse Logic Framework project will provide a complete Prolog
 development and run-time environment, adding Prolog to the existing Eclipse
 ecosystem of supported languages:
 <ul>
 <li>The IDE will support editing, code navigation and refactoring of Prolog code.
 It will be configurable to support external native Prolog run-time engines
 (such as SWI-Prolog) and the project's own internal run-time.</li>
 <li>The internal run-time will allow running Prolog programs on the Java Virtual
 Machine, providing the basis for a seamless integration of Prolog and Java in
 a multi-paradigm approach that lets developers use the best of each language
 for each particular task.</li>
 </ul>
 </p>
 <p>As a platform, the ELF will provide the means to integrate with results from
 specific areas of research into the Prolog language. It will invite researchers
 and tool makers from the logic programming and multi-paradigm programming
 community to actively contribute to the development and critical evaluation of
 the project.</p>

 <h2>Value Proposition</h2>

 <p><strong>Industrial:</strong>&nbsp;While the ELF project recognizes its
 academic origins, the emphasis is on the development of an industry-grade,
 production-ready product. The project is aimed at developers and researchers
 who can benefit from logic programming solutions in general. Beyond that, it
 will provide a unique platform for novel families of logic-based applications
 that can take advantage from running on a Java virtual machine. The project
 provides complete support for the Equinox OSGi framework and Google App Engine
 for Java (GAE/J).</p>
 <p><strong>Educational:</strong>&nbsp;Because it offers an all-in-one Prolog IDE,
 the ELF has the potential to become the tool-of-choice for educational purposes.
 It lowers the barrier for entry into the realm of logic programming. By supporting
 multiple run-times out-of-the-box, teachers and students will be able to focus
 on the language issues, as opposed to the installation issues.</p>
 <p><strong>Semantic:</strong>&nbsp;The ELF will increase the presence of
 the Eclipse community at the Semantic Technologies frontier and will leverage
 development of Semantic Web applications on the Java platform. It will prove
 especially relevant in the area of 'Logic Frameworks' in the Semantic Web
 Technology Stack.</p>

 <h2>Proposed Components</h2>

 <p>The project's initial target is the introduction of the following components:
 <ol>
 <li>a set of IDE contributions to edit Prolog source files which meet the expected standards of well-known, existing Eclipse IDE projects,</li>
 <li>a connector framework to interact with native Prolog run-time engines and interpreters,</li>
 <li>a Java-based Prolog interpreter, which runs without the need of a native Prolog run-time environment,</li>
 <li>a Prolog-to-Java source-to-source translator system,</li>
 <li>a high-performance Java-based Prolog run-time,</li>
 <li>a 'Java Architecture for Prolog Binding' (JAPB) API to facilitate integration with pure Java programs,</li>
 <li>a set of built-in example projects.</li>
 </ol>
 </p>
 <p>Beyond the scope of the initial target, the following components are under consideration:
 <ul>
 <li>support for Common Logic (CL) data formats: the Import Common Logic Interchange Format (CLIF), for the Conceptual Graph Interchange Format (CGIF) and the XML-based notation for Common Logic (XCL),</li>
 <li>support for Semantic Web data formats: the Resource Description Framework (RDF) and the Ontology Web Language (OWL).</li>
 </ul>
 </p>

 <h2>Relationship with other Eclipse Projects</h2>

 <p>The Eclipse Logic Framework project will be built on top of the Eclipse IDE.
 Although the Prolog IDE will stand on its own, the Java-specific hybrid language
 aspects of the ELF will depend on JDT components in order to function.</p>
 <p>This project has the potential to leverage the 'Eclipse IDE For Education' (IDE4EDU) project, by providing a Prolog IDE and run-time announced but unavailable at the time of this writing.</p>

 <h2>Organization</h2>

 <p>This project requests a place in the Eclipse Tools hierarchy as it facilitates programming in Prolog, and Java in combination with Prolog.</p>
 <p>While the main driver is a commercial entity, the product shall remain absolutely free and without restrictions. In addition, this project will strive to develop a working relationship with the academic world, and where possible, integrate existing and ongoing development efforts of academic origins.</p>

 <p>Mentors<br>
 TBD</p>


 <p>Proposed initial committers:
 <ul>
 <li>TOMOTON N.V., Belgium - Dann Martens (Project Lead)</li>
 <li>Bonn University, Germany - Günter Kniesel (Project Lead)</li>
 <li>Bonn University, Germany  Tobias Rho</li>
 <li>Bonn University, Germany  Eva Stöwe</li>
 </ul>
 </p>

 <h2>Interested parties</h2>

 <p>The following academic institutions have expressed interest in this project. Key contacts listed.
 <ul>
 <li>Kobe University, Japan - Mutsunori Banbara</li>
 <li>Kobe University, Japan - Naoyuki Tamura</li>
 <li>Eclipse IDE for Education</li>
 <li>Dwight Duego</li>
 </ul>
 </p>

 <h2>Code Contributions</h2>

 <p>The Kobe University, Japan, has contributed the Prolog-to-Java source-to-source
 translator system. The individual contributors involved in the development of
 the original code base were Mutsunori Banbara and Naoyuki Tamura.</p>
 <p>Bonn University, Germany, has contributed the Prolog IDE and parts, from the
 externally hosted Prolog Development Tools (PDT) project. The code base was
 originally licensed under the Eclipse Public License. The individual
 contributors involved in the development of the original code base were Lukas
 Degener, Tobias Rho, Eva Stöwe and Frank Mühlschlegel.</p>
 <p>TOMOTON, NV, Belgium, has requested the Kobe University to dual licence the
 translator system under the Eclipse License, next to the GNU General
 Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation (version 2
 of the License). In addition, TOMOTON has modified the existing code base to
 allow the run-time to work both in an OSGi container, as well as in the
 sandbox of Google App Engine for Java. TOMOTON NV has designed and
 developed the JAPB API. The individual contributor involved in the
 modification and separate development was Dann Martens.</p>

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 	$App->generatePage($theme, $Menu, $Nav, $pageAuthor, $pageKeywords, $pageTitle, $html);
 ?>
	<?php require_once($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] . "/eclipse.org-common/system/app.class.php"); require_once($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] . "/eclipse.org-common/system/nav.class.php"); require_once($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] . "/eclipse.org-common/system/menu.class.php"); $App = new App(); $Nav = new Nav(); $Menu = new Menu(); include($App->getProjectCommon()); # All on the same line to unclutter the user's desktop'

	$pageTitle = "";
	$pageKeywords = "";
	$pageAuthor = "Dann Martens";

	ob_start();
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	<div id="maincontent">
	<div id="midcolumn">

	<?php
	include_once($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] . "/projects/fragments/proposal-page-header.php");
	generate_header("Eclipse Logic Framework");
	?>

	<h1>Eclipse Logic Framework (ELF)</h1>

	<h2>Introduction</h2>

	<p>Eclipse Logic Framework (ELF) is a proposed open source project under the
	Eclipse Technology Project.</p>
	<p>This proposal is in the Project Proposal Phase (as defined in the Eclipse
	Development Process document) and is written to declare its intent and scope.
	This proposal is written to solicit additional participation and input
	from the Eclipse community. You are invited to comment on and/or
	join the project. Please send all feedback to
	the <a href="http://www.eclipse.org/forums/eclipse.elf">ELF forum</a>.</p>

	<h2>Scope</h2>

	<p>Prolog (PROgramming LOGic) was developed in 1972 (although sources vary) by
	Alain Colmerauer and Phillipe Roussel, both of University of Aix-Marseille,
	France, in collaboration with Robert Kowalski of the University of Edinburgh,
	United Kingdom. While popular in the Artificial Intelligence community, which
	used it amongst other things for the development of expert systems and natural
	language processing, its significance has waxed and waned over time. Even though the
	language has been ISO standardized in 1995, it has never broken through in
	the computer industry in the way other languages have, especially when compared
	to the now ubiquitous Java, developed by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems
	and released in 1995.</p>
	<p>In 1996, Bart Demoen of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium, and Paul Tarau,
	at that time at the Université de Moncton, Canada, outlined a method to run Prolog
	programs on a Java virtual machine. A limited proof-of-concept implementation was
	made available under the moniker 'jProlog'. The idea was picked up again soon after
	by Mutsunori Banbara and Naoyuki Tamura of Kobe University, Japan, and developed
	into a feature-complete clean-room implementation under the moniker
	'Prolog Cafe' (http://kaminari.istc.kobe-u.ac.jp/PrologCafe/), of which the
	last update dates June 24th 2009.</p>
	<p>In 2002, Tobias Rho created the Prolog Development Tool (PDT),
	the first Eclipse-based IDE for working with SWI-Prolog, as part of his
	diploma thesis at the University of Bonn. Since then the PDT project has
	continuously evolved in its academic environment, led by Dr. Günter Kniesel,
	with contributions of Tobias Rho, Lukas Degener and Eva Stöwe. The PDT
	will be subsumed by the ELF, but for now the original project can still be
	found at http://roots.iai.uni-bonn.de/research/pdt/.</p>
	<p>With the advent of the Semantic Web, a new spin was put on the A.I. research
	accomplishments of the last 50 years. While Tim Berners Lee contended in 1998
	that a Semantic Web is not Artificial Intelligence, he did call it
	a 'language of logic'. Logic languages were designed with the specific
	purpose of making the expression of the solution to problems straightforward.
	Yet, Semantic Technologies are developed using popular contemporary languages,
	all of which are notoriously ill-suited for that very same purpose. Equally true,
	those (early) logic languages have become sidelined because they made many
	real-world everyday-programming tasks cumbersome.</p>
	<p>The ELF represents a renewed interest in the pursuit of practical logic
	programming.</p>

	<h2>Description</h2>

	<p>The Eclipse Logic Framework project will provide a complete Prolog
	development and run-time environment, adding Prolog to the existing Eclipse
	ecosystem of supported languages:
	<ul>
	<li>The IDE will support editing, code navigation and refactoring of Prolog code.
	It will be configurable to support external native Prolog run-time engines
	(such as SWI-Prolog) and the project's own internal run-time.</li>
	<li>The internal run-time will allow running Prolog programs on the Java Virtual
	Machine, providing the basis for a seamless integration of Prolog and Java in
	a multi-paradigm approach that lets developers use the best of each language
	for each particular task.</li>
	</ul>
	</p>
	<p>As a platform, the ELF will provide the means to integrate with results from
	specific areas of research into the Prolog language. It will invite researchers
	and tool makers from the logic programming and multi-paradigm programming
	community to actively contribute to the development and critical evaluation of
	the project.</p>

	<h2>Value Proposition</h2>

	<p><strong>Industrial:</strong> While the ELF project recognizes its
	academic origins, the emphasis is on the development of an industry-grade,
	production-ready product. The project is aimed at developers and researchers
	who can benefit from logic programming solutions in general. Beyond that, it
	will provide a unique platform for novel families of logic-based applications
	that can take advantage from running on a Java virtual machine. The project
	provides complete support for the Equinox OSGi framework and Google App Engine
	for Java (GAE/J).</p>
	<p><strong>Educational:</strong> Because it offers an all-in-one Prolog IDE,
	the ELF has the potential to become the tool-of-choice for educational purposes.
	It lowers the barrier for entry into the realm of logic programming. By supporting
	multiple run-times out-of-the-box, teachers and students will be able to focus
	on the language issues, as opposed to the installation issues.</p>
	<p><strong>Semantic:</strong> The ELF will increase the presence of
	the Eclipse community at the Semantic Technologies frontier and will leverage
	development of Semantic Web applications on the Java platform. It will prove
	especially relevant in the area of 'Logic Frameworks' in the Semantic Web
	Technology Stack.</p>

	<h2>Proposed Components</h2>

	<p>The project's initial target is the introduction of the following components:
	<ol>
	<li>a set of IDE contributions to edit Prolog source files which meet the expected standards of well-known, existing Eclipse IDE projects,</li>
	<li>a connector framework to interact with native Prolog run-time engines and interpreters,</li>
	<li>a Java-based Prolog interpreter, which runs without the need of a native Prolog run-time environment,</li>
	<li>a Prolog-to-Java source-to-source translator system,</li>
	<li>a high-performance Java-based Prolog run-time,</li>
	<li>a 'Java Architecture for Prolog Binding' (JAPB) API to facilitate integration with pure Java programs,</li>
	<li>a set of built-in example projects.</li>
	</ol>
	</p>
	<p>Beyond the scope of the initial target, the following components are under consideration:
	<ul>
	<li>support for Common Logic (CL) data formats: the Import Common Logic Interchange Format (CLIF), for the Conceptual Graph Interchange Format (CGIF) and the XML-based notation for Common Logic (XCL),</li>
	<li>support for Semantic Web data formats: the Resource Description Framework (RDF) and the Ontology Web Language (OWL).</li>
	</ul>
	</p>

	<h2>Relationship with other Eclipse Projects</h2>

	<p>The Eclipse Logic Framework project will be built on top of the Eclipse IDE.
	Although the Prolog IDE will stand on its own, the Java-specific hybrid language
	aspects of the ELF will depend on JDT components in order to function.</p>
	<p>This project has the potential to leverage the 'Eclipse IDE For Education' (IDE4EDU) project, by providing a Prolog IDE and run-time announced but unavailable at the time of this writing.</p>

	<h2>Organization</h2>

	<p>This project requests a place in the Eclipse Tools hierarchy as it facilitates programming in Prolog, and Java in combination with Prolog.</p>
	<p>While the main driver is a commercial entity, the product shall remain absolutely free and without restrictions. In addition, this project will strive to develop a working relationship with the academic world, and where possible, integrate existing and ongoing development efforts of academic origins.</p>

	<p>Mentors<br>
	TBD</p>


	<p>Proposed initial committers:
	<ul>
	<li>TOMOTON N.V., Belgium - Dann Martens (Project Lead)</li>
	<li>Bonn University, Germany - Günter Kniesel (Project Lead)</li>
	<li>Bonn University, Germany Tobias Rho</li>
	<li>Bonn University, Germany Eva Stöwe</li>
	</ul>
	</p>

	<h2>Interested parties</h2>

	<p>The following academic institutions have expressed interest in this project. Key contacts listed.
	<ul>
	<li>Kobe University, Japan - Mutsunori Banbara</li>
	<li>Kobe University, Japan - Naoyuki Tamura</li>
	<li>Eclipse IDE for Education</li>
	<li>Dwight Duego</li>
	</ul>
	</p>

	<h2>Code Contributions</h2>

	<p>The Kobe University, Japan, has contributed the Prolog-to-Java source-to-source
	translator system. The individual contributors involved in the development of
	the original code base were Mutsunori Banbara and Naoyuki Tamura.</p>
	<p>Bonn University, Germany, has contributed the Prolog IDE and parts, from the
	externally hosted Prolog Development Tools (PDT) project. The code base was
	originally licensed under the Eclipse Public License. The individual
	contributors involved in the development of the original code base were Lukas
	Degener, Tobias Rho, Eva Stöwe and Frank Mühlschlegel.</p>
	<p>TOMOTON, NV, Belgium, has requested the Kobe University to dual licence the
	translator system under the Eclipse License, next to the GNU General
	Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation (version 2
	of the License). In addition, TOMOTON has modified the existing code base to
	allow the run-time to work both in an OSGi container, as well as in the
	sandbox of Google App Engine for Java. TOMOTON NV has designed and
	developed the JAPB API. The individual contributor involved in the
	modification and separate development was Dann Martens.</p>

	<?php
	$html = ob_get_contents();
	ob_end_clean();

	# Generate the web page
	$App->generatePage($theme, $Menu, $Nav, $pageAuthor, $pageKeywords, $pageTitle, $html);
	?>