[ontolog-forum] Constraint Solving versus Inferencing

[David Whitten <whitten@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Since we have such a large group of mathematically sophisticated people on this mailing list, I'd like to open a topic I know little about.

I recently learned there is a Constraint Solver based on this paper

http://constraints.cs.washington.edu/solvers/cassowary-tochi.pdf

Described as software here:

https://www.npmjs.org/package/cassowary

with the implementation at the github address:

https://github.com/slightlyoff/cassowary-js-refactor

From their description:

Constraint solvers are iterative algorithms that work towards ever more ideal solutions, often using some variant of Dantzig's simplex method. They are primarily of interest in situations where it's possible to easily set up a set of rules which you would like a solution to adhere to, but when it is very difficult to consider all of the possible solutions yourself.

One of the things Inference Engines allow as the internal software of an expert system is to calculate the logical closure (those facts which can be inferred from an axiom set and a set of rules).

Are these two approaches compatible?

Is the Simplex method only useful for operational research, or is it useful in logical operations on ontologies ?

Best

David Whitten

713-870-3834

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