My Constraint Programming Blog

Some weeks ago Antoni Niederliński wrote to the ECLiPSe mailing list about his new book (in Polish) about constraint logic programming with ECLipSe: Programowanie w logice z ograniczeniami ("Programming in Logic with Constraints"), PKJS, Gliwice 2010, 308 pages. ISBN: 9788360716953.

The author was kind enough to send the book to me and I received it yesterday. Since I don't understand Polish, I have now just browsed the book and tried some of the examples. It is a challenge to read code where all variable names and comments are in a unknown language, however many of the them are standard examples or variations .

It is a beautiful book with nice color plates of the problem's solutions as well as the principles of constraints such as propagators, etc. There are also many examples that seems to be well explained in the text, and there are 69 accompanying ECLiPSe models which can be downloaded (see below). It would be nice if this book is translated to English, it would be a welcome addition to other introduction books to constraint (logic) programming since it contains many different examples with explanations. However, I don't know if the author have any such plans.

The book is presented in the (Polish) site: www.pwlzo.pl. Translated to English by Google Translate: Logic programming with constraints - Gentle introduction to Eclipse:

[N]ew book: Anthony Niederliński, "Programming in logic with constraints. Gentle introduction to Eclipse," PKJS, Gliwice 2010, 308 + XVIII of the parties. The book contains:
* accessible lecture bases logic programming with constraints (CLP) for a free Eclipse Constraint Programming System, available through the Cisco-style Mozilla Public License
* descriptions and examples of basic methods of CLP with an emphasis on their intuitive understanding, and without the theoretical justification
* commented on a series of sample programs of increasing difficulty;

The book is intended for all those who want to quickly begin to set limits and optimal solutions for combinatorial and continuous problems using the mechanisms of CLP.

The contents of the book is Google translated here. It is slightly edited, and I have not been able to find a translation for some of the words.

Contents book "Programming in logic with constraints. Gentle introduction to the Eclipse"

Introduction, i
0.1 What is the book?, i
0.2 What is the logic programming with constraints?, Ii
0.3 Programming in logic with constraints and artificial intelligence, v
0.4 Programming in logic with constraints and knowledge engineering, vii
0.5 Programming in logic with constraints and operational research, viii
0.6 How was the book?, Ix
0.7 What the book contains?, Ix
0.8 How to use the book?, Xiii
0.9 A inconvenience Eclipse, xvi
0.10 Credits, xviii
1 In the beginning was the Prologue, 1
1.1 Elements of the Prologue, 1
1.2 Setting System 3-element, 8
1.2.1 Setting up a complete review of the method, 9
1.2.2 Setting method of searching the depths with standard relapses, 9
1.2.3 Setting the optimum, 15
1.3 Golfers, 18
1.4 Three balls, 21
1.5 Who killed him?, 24
1.6 Hetmani [n-queens problem] - a complete overview, 26
1.7 Hetmani [n-queens problem] - searching the depths of the standard recurrences, 28
1.8 Examination - searching the depths of the standard recurrences, 31
1.9 Incorrect wheel in the prologue, 36
1.10 How to become his own grandfather?, 37
1.11 Maze, 39
1.12 Field of mine, 42
1.13 The man-wolf-goat-cabbage, 46
1.14 Missionaries and cannibals, 49
1.15 Towers of Hanoi, 54
1.16 Decanting [3-jugs problem], 57
2 CLP restrictions for elementary feasible solutions (63
2.1 Limitations and areas of elementary variables, 63
2.2 What languages are different from Prolog CLP?, 63
2.2.1 n-Queens Problem in the CLP, 64
2.2.2 Exploration and Forward Checking method of propagation, 65
2.2.3 Exploration and propagation method of Forward Looking Ahead + Checking, 68
2.3 heuristic search, 69
2.4 Techniques zgodnościowe [about consistency], 72
2.5 Propagation of the failure of limitations, 73
2.6 Propagation of constraints gives a solution, 76
2.7 Who was with whom? - Propagation, 81
2.8 Students and languages - propagation, 83
2.9 Propagation of exploration: three equations in whole numbers, 89
2.10 Golfers again, 91
2.11 The guards - search and propagation, 93
2.12 Examination - search and propagation, 94
2.13 Hetman - search and propagation, 96
2.14 Setting - search and propagation, 97
2.15 collaborators and undercover Etosowcy The opposition, 99
3.1 Declarations module, 103
3.2 Limitation 'alldifferent (?Lists)', 104
3.3 Limitation 'element (?Index, ++List,?Value), 106
3.4 Send More Money, 106
3.5 Who was with whom?, 107
3.6 Golfers once again, 110
3.7 Three bullets once again, 113
3.8 Hetman [n-queens], 116
3.9 Five halls, 117
3.10 The ten classrooms, 120
3.11 All for All, 126
3.12 Seven of machinery - the seven operations, 131
3.13 Three machines - three of the five operations, 134
3.14 Three machines - five operations, 135
3.15 Using the data, 138
3.15.1 Structures and arrays, 138
3.15.2 Recursion and iteration, 141
3.16 Scalar product, 147
3.17 Hetman [n-queens] again, 148
3.18 Sudoku, 149
3.19 Hetman [n-queens] again, 152
4 CLP restrictions for elementary optimal solutions, 153
4.1 General, 153
4.2 Improved Branch and Bound, 154
4.2.1 The optimal position commanders - a standard Branch and Bound, 155
4.2.2 The optimal position commanders - Branch and Bound & Forward Checking, 156
4.2.3 The optimal position commanders - Branch and Bound + Forward Looking Ahead Checking, 157
4.3 The fundamental predicates, 158
4.3.1 The predicate 'bb min()', 158
4.3.2 The predicate 'search()', 160
4.4 Setting the optimal, 162
4.5 Optimizing load seven machines 165
4.6 Plan of the transport of coal 1, 168
4.7 Plan of the transport of coal 2, 171
4.8 Plan of the transport of coal 3, 173
4.9 Coloring maps, 176
4.10 knapsack problem 1, 177
4.11 Urzeczowione limitations, 180
4.12 Restrictions on the harvest, 181
4.13 knapsack problem 2, 185
4.14 Wholesale and consumers - 1, 186
4.15 Wholesale and consumers - 2, 191
4.16 Elementary scheduling, 194
4.16.1 resource constraints - the crew, 195
4.16.2 Lights and misery optimization, 199
4.16.3 Limitations kolejnośsciowe - building a house, 202
4.16.4 Limitations [disjunctive] - limited resources, 206
4.17 Optimization constraints and contradictions - photo, 209
4.18 shall appoint a parliamentary committee, 213
4.19 We are fighting for even udeszczowienie, 216
4.20 How to cut optimally?, 220
4.21 Most Send Money, 222
5 CLP restrictions for global optimal solutions, 225
225 5.1 Limitation of 'cumulative ()', 225
5.2 Cumulative scheduling 1, 227
5.3 Cumulative Scheduling 2, 228
5.4 Limitation of 'disjunctive ()', 230
5.5 [Disjunctive] scheduling 1, 231
5.6 We read newspapers 1, 232
5.7 We read newspapers 2, 238
5.8 We read newspapers 3, 242
5.9 Mount bicycles, 247
5.10 unloads and loads the ship, 262
5.11 An example of a very difficult - benchmark MT10, 269
6 CLP for continuous variables, 287
6.1 The curse and blessing of compound interest, 288
6.1.1 On retirement as a millionaire - 1, 289
6.1.2 On retirement as a millionaire - 2, 290
6.1.3 Ah, those mortgages!, 292
6.2 Wholesalers - suppliers, 293
6.3 Mixing oils, 297
6.4 How do I earn and not narobić?, 299

The examples can be downloaded here here.

End note

The book contain at least one reference to my own ECLiPSe page (attributed as "Constraint Programming Blog" in the reference section) which is quite fun since it is the first time my constraint programming blog/sites are referenced in a book. The example that starts on page 222 is attributed to my send_most_money.ecl model.

Here is the original text in Polish, as far as I have been able to type the different accents and strikes:

Popularna łamigłówka Send More Money (patrz rozdzial 3.4) ma rowniez swą wersje optymalizacyjna o nazwie Send Most Money, ktorej celem jest maksymalizacja wartosci zmiennej Money. Odpowiedni program 4_20_smm.ecl, zaczerpnięty z witryny [Kjellerstrand-10], jest postaci:

Google Translate translates the text as:

The popular puzzle Send More Money (see Chapter 3.4) also has its version of optimization, called Send Money Bridge, whose objective is to maximize the value of the variable Money. 4_20_smm.ecl appropriate program, taken from the site [Kjellerstrand-10], is of the form:

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