[m-rev.] for review: atoms in the debugger

[Zoltan Somogyi]

On 02-Jan-2002, Fergus Henderson <fjh at cs.mu.OZ.AU> wrote:
> On 02-Jan-2002, Zoltan Somogyi <zs at cs.mu.OZ.AU> wrote:
> > On 02-Jan-2002, Fergus Henderson <fjh at cs.mu.OZ.AU> wrote:
> > > Ah, sorry, I realize now that I misunderstood what you were using "atom"
> > > to refer to -- you're talking about browsing calls at call/exit/redo/fail
> > > ports.
> > 
> > And all other ports.
> 
> What gets browsed at the other ports?

The atom of the current call, with as many headvars as are live at the current
event.

> > And browsing I/O action atoms in the declarative debugger
> > (which is what started me off).
> 
> Well, I/O actions are just calls, aren't they?

Yes, but the intention is that the declarative debugger will print them
when asking whether the actual side-effects of a goal (i.e. the I/O primitives
it caused to be executed) are correct or not. What is different about these
atoms is that they will be printed in the context of a call other than the I/O
primitive's own call.

> > > Maybe it's best to talk about browsing calls, rather than
> > > printing atoms.
> > 
> > Browsing a "call" at an exit port and having it show even the output arguments
> > would be confusing.
> 
> Perhaps, but IMHO it would be less confusing than using the term "atom"
> (which had me completely confused).

??? You must have read the term hundreds of times in logic programming papers.

> Another alternative would be to talk about "browsing goals",
> or perhaps "browsing subgoals".

Both of these would imply generality where none exists. The only kinds
of goals you can browse are atoms; not unifications, not conjunctions etc. 

Who else shares Fergus's aversion to "atom"? Who has a suggestion for a
possible name that is not misleading?

Zoltan.
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