Toward a general language for the specification of constraint satisfaction problems

Abstract

The past decade saw rapid progress toward prominence of constraint satisfaction technology. Many practical algorithms have been developed to solve larger and larger problems. The degree of maturity in this technology begs the support of well-established software engineering tools. This paper targets a formal specification language DEPICT 0.1 that can aid in the formulation of constraint satisfaction problems and the identification of suitable algorithms for their solutions. This paper outlines, through a few selected examples, suitable characteristics that DEPICT 0.1 should possess and concludes with some of the benefits that can arise from that.