Meta-Programming for Linear-time Temporal Answer Set Programming
This work provides a flexible tool for researchers to rapidly prototype and explore alternative temporal logics in ASP, addressing the rigidity of existing systems.
The authors propose a meta-programming framework for temporal answer set programming that operationalizes the semantics of TEL, MEL, and DEL via a unified declarative approach, and introduce the metasp system. The framework extends clingo with type specifications and nesting, and includes a transformation pipeline to ensure semantic correctness.
The development of temporal extensions of Answer Set Programming (ASP) has led to the emergence of non-monotonic linear-time (TEL), dynamic (DEL), and metric (MEL) temporal equilibrium logics. However, the inherent rigidity of highly optimized ASP systems often hinders the rapid exploration and implementation of alternative logical designs. In this work, we propose a flexible meta-programming framework that operationalizes the semantics of varied temporal logics through a unified, declarative framework. Our approach extends standard ASP meta-programming by augmenting clingo's theory grammar with formal type specifications and nesting capabilities. To ensure semantic correctness, we introduce a transformation pipeline that protects nested modalities from stable-model-based simplifications during grounding. We demonstrate the extensibility of our framework by implementing meta-encodings for TEL, MEL, and DEL. We provide a comprehensive account of TEL and highlight the key features for managing the interval constraints of MEL and the Fischer-Ladner closure in DEL. Finally, we introduce the metasp system, a versatile tool that encapsulates this workflow.