Platforms and Infrastructure

XSB is an advanced logic based system, which extends the Prolog language by combining intelligent database technology with optimized logic programming technology. This unique combination makes XSB the ideal platform for developing complex knowledge-based software applications.

Key Features of the XSB system:

• The result of more than 25 years of focused research, development, and collaboration by students and faculty at the State University of New York at Stony Brook with contributions from world-wide open-source community
• Project directed by XSB, Inc. Vice President of Sciences, Dr. David S. Warren Ph.D.
• Supported primarily through research grants from the National Science Foundation (www.nsf.gov)
• Includes automatic tabling
• Combines the advanced logic-based programming environment of Prolog with the declarativeness and data management capabilities of a deductive database system
• Enables the rapid development of intelligent knowledge based processing systems
• Incorporates excellent indexing mechanisms to allow it to efficiently process large data sets
• Contains grammar-processing capabilities that make it ideal for complex text-processing applications, including the extraction of semantic information from text
• High-level declarativeness significantly reduces code size
• Compact code allows it to work with larger data sets
• Open Source system freely available from xsb.sourceforge.net
• Can be used with either Windows or Unix based operating systems
• Has provided the basic platform for large-scale commercial systems for
  • the U.S. Customs Service
  • the U.S. Defense Logistics Agency
  • the National Security Agency
  • Medicine Rules, Inc
  • MDLogix Inc.
  • and many others

Extensional CDF is a formalism in which ontologies can be defined using Prolog-style facts. Collections of CDF facts allow statements to be made about the inclusion of objects in classes, and of one class in another. In addition, universal and existential statements can be made about various binary relations among objects and classes, along with conjunctions of such statements.

Key features of CDF include:

• A variety of database interfaces
• Import/export capabilities
• Mechanisms for concurrent updates
• Mechanisms for logging and recovery
• Incremental consistency checking
• A module-like component system for versioning and easy reuse of knowledge bases
• A graphical user interface for viewing and updating ontologies

XJ allows programs, coded using the XSB programming language, to easily define and control GUIs. XJ is written in XSB and Java, using the Java Swing library.

Key features of XJ include:

• Data structures constructed in XSB are sent to Java to define a presentation on the user's screen
• Graphical user actions invoke XSB functions
• Based on InterProlog, which reflects XSB data structures into the Java data space and vice-versa
• Uses the Java-XSB socket interface or Java-XSB native interface
• Enables rapid construction of sophisticated, flexible GUIs with little effort
• Runs on major OS platforms

XJ Links

• Home Page
• Download

XSB, Inc. makes use of Sun's Java Web Start deployment technology, which enables users to easily install and run Java-based software applications. Using Java Web Start, users can download, install, and run the desired software application simply by clicking on the appropriate software application link. Each time the software is launched, it will automatically check for updates, ensuring that the software application is always up to date.

For more information see Sun’s latest readme document at http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.2/docs/guide/jws/Readme.html.