External Functions: Difference between revisions

As of version 1.3.5-beta7 ProB can make use of externally defined functions. These functions must currently be written in Prolog (in principle C, Java, Tcl or even other languages can be used via the SICStus Prolog external function interfaces). These functions can be used to write expression, predicates, or substitutions. The general mechanism that is used is to mark certain DEFINITIONS as external, in which case ProB will make use of external Prolog code rather than using the right-hand-side of the DEFINITION whenever it is used. However, these DEFINITIONS can often (unless they are polymorphic) be wrapped into B (constant) functions. If you just want to use the standard external functions already defined by ProB, then you don't have to understand this mechanism in detail (or at all).

Standard Libraries provided by ProB

In a first instance we have predefined a series of external functions and grouped them in various library machines and definition files:

• LibraryMath.mch: defining sin, cos, tan, sinx, cosx, tanx, logx, gcd, msb, random as well as access to all other Prolog built-in arithmetic functions.
• LibraryStrings.mch: functions manipulating B STRING objects by providing length, append, split and conversion functions chars, codes.
• LibraryFiles.mch: various functions to obtain information about files and directories in the underlying file system
• LibraryIO.def providing functions to write information to screen or file. Note: these external functions are polymorphic and as such cannot be defined as B constants: you have to use the DEFINITIONS provided in LibraryIO.def.
• CHOOSE.def providing the Hilbert operator for choosing a designated element from each set. Again, this function is polymorphic and thus cannot be defined as a B function. This function is useful for defining recursive functions over sets (see also TLA).

Overview of the External Function DEFINITION mechanism

Currently, these external functions are linked to classical B machines using DEFINITIONS as follows:

• one definition, which defines the function as it is seen by tools other than ProB (e.g., Atelier-B). Suppose we want to declare an external cosinus function named COS, then this definition could be COS(x) == cos(x).
• one definition declaring the type of the function. For COS this would be EXTERNAL_FUNCTION_COS == INTEGER --> INTEGER.
• Prolog code which gets called by ProB in place of the right-hand-side of the first definition

Usually, it is also a good idea to encapsulate the external function inside a CONSTANT which is defined as a lambda abstraction with as body simply the call to the first DEFINITION. For COS this would be cos = %x.(x:NATURAL|COS(x)). Observe that for Atelier-B this is a tautology. For ProB, the use of such a constant allows one to have a real B function representing the external function, for which we can compute the domain, range, etc.