COPE - A Flexible Constraint-Based Programming System for Knowledge Processing

This paper presents COPE, a constraint representation and processing system for artificial intelligence applications. The main idea of this system is that constraints offer powerful knowledge representation and processing facilities on their own and in combination with frames (or objects). This is the reason for which a special attention has been directed to providing various constructs such as generic, parameterized, and hierarchical constraints, a specialized language for declaring the functionality of constraints, concise connections declaration, as well as flexible processing capabilities, all of these integrated into a LISP-based object-oriented programming environment.