Russell asked:
But if it can't read the syntax tree, how will it know what the main body
actually does?
My line of thinking arose while considering how to reason over syntax trees. I
came to realize that source code composition is somewhat analogous to program
compilation in this way: When a source code program is compiled into
executable machine instructions, much of the conceptual intent of the
programmer is lost, but the computer can none the less execute the program.
Humans cannot read compiled binary code; they cannot reason about it. We need
source code for reasoning about programs. Accordingly, I thought about the
program composition process. Exactly what is lost, i.e. not explicitly
recorded, when a human programmer writes a correct source code program from
high-level specifications. This "lost" information is what I model as the
nested composition framework. When a programmer tries to understand a source
code program written by someone else, the programmer must reverse-engineer the
deductive chain that leads from the observed source code
back to the perhaps only partially known original specifications.
I will not have a worked out example until next year, but a sketch would be as
follows. In Java, a main body could be a method or a block within a method.
For a method, I do not persist simply the syntax tree for the method, but
rather the nested composition operations that when subsequently processed
generate the method source code. For a composed method I would persist:
* composed preconditions with respect to the method parameters and
possibly other scoped variables such as class variables
* composed invariant conditions
* composed postconditions
* composed method comment
* composed method type
* composed method access modifiers (i.e. public, private, abstract etc.)
* composed method parameter type, comment, modifier (e.g. final)
* composed statementsComposed statements generate Java statements such
as an assignment statement, block statement and so forth. You can see that
there is a tree structure that can be navigated when performing a deductive
composition operation like "is ArrayList imported into the containing class? -
if not then compose that import in the right place".
Persisted composition instances are KB terms that can be linked to the
justifying algorithmic and domain knowledge. I hypothesize this is cleaner and
more flexible than directly tying lower-level persisted syntax trees to their
justifications.
-Steve
Stephen L. Reed
Artificial Intelligence Researcher
http://texai.org/blog
http://texai.org
3008 Oak Crest Ave.
Austin, Texas, USA 78704
512.791.7860
----- Original Message ----
From: Russell Wallace <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: agi@v2.listbox.com
Sent: Friday, October 24, 2008 10:28:39 AM
Subject: Re: [agi] On programming languages
On Fri, Oct 24, 2008 at 4:10 PM, Stephen Reed <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Hi Russell,
> Although I've already chosen an implementation language for my Texai project
> - Java, I believe that my experience may interest you.
Very much so, thank you.
> I moved up one level of procedural abstraction to view program composition
> as the key intelligent activity. Supporting this abstraction level is the
> capability to perform source code editing for the desired target language -
> in my case Java. In my paradigm, its not the program syntax tree that gets
> persisted in the knowledge base but rather the nested composition framework
> that bottoms out in primitives that generate Java program elements. The
> nested composition framework is my attempt to model the conceptual aspects
> of program composition. For example a procedure may have an initialization
> section, a main body, and a finalization section. I desire Texai to be able
> to figure out for itself where to insert a new required variable in the
> source code so that it has the appropriate scope, and so forth.
But if it can't read the syntax tree, how will it know what the main
body actually does?
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