Implementing a Library for Probabilistic Programming Using Non-strict Non-determinism. Issue 1 (2nd July 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: DYLUS, SANDRA; CHRISTIANSEN, JAN; TEEGEN, FINN
• Is Part Of: Theory and practice of logic programming. Volume 20:Issue 1(2020)
• Page Start: 147
• Page End: 175
• Publication Date: 2019-07-02
• Subjects: probabilistic programming, -- functional logic programming, -- non-determinism, -- laziness, -- call-time choice; Logic programming -- Periodicals; Artificial intelligence -- Computer programs -- Periodicals; Constraint programming (Computer science) -- Periodicals; 005.115
• DOI: 10.1017/S1471068419000085
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1471-0684

Abstract

Abstract: This paper presents PFLP, a library for probabilistic programming in the functional logic programming language Curry. It demonstrates how the concepts of a functional logic programming language support the implementation of a library for probabilistic programming. In fact, the paradigms of functional logic and probabilistic programming are closely connected. That is, language characteristics from one area exist in the other and vice versa. For example, the concepts of non-deterministic choice and call-time choice as known from functional logic programming are related to and coincide with stochastic memoization and probabilistic choice in probabilistic programming, respectively. We will further see that an implementation based on the concepts of functional logic programming can have benefits with respect to performance compared to a standard list-based implementation and can even compete with full-blown probabilistic programming languages, which we illustrate by several benchmarks.