Transaction Logic Programming

An extension of predicate logic, called Transaction Logic, is proposed, which accounts in a clean and declarative fashion for the phenomenon of state changes in logic programs and databases. Transaction Logic has a natural model theory and a sound and complete proof theory, but unlike many other logics, it allows users to program transactions. The semantics leads naturally to features whose amalgamation in a single logic has proved elusive in the past. These features include both hypothetical and committed updates, dynamic constraints on transaction execution, non-determinism, and bulk updates. Finally, Transaction Logic holds promise as a logical model of hitherto non-logical phenomena, including so-called procedural knowledge in AI, and the behavior of object-oriented databases, especially methods with side eeects. This paper presents the semantics of Transaction Logic coupled with a sound and complete proof theory for a Horn-like subset of the logic.

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