W-ACE: a logic language for intelligent Internet programming

The development of the World Wide Web (WWW) has been considerably delayed due to the excessive complexity of developing advanced and intelligent applications for the Internet. An average application may require the use of different languages, an in-depth understanding of various communication protocols and low-level communication mechanisms, etc. We propose a logic programming system, called W-ACE, extended with various features to support natural and efficient development of Internet tools. The nature of the constructs introduced makes it particularly suitable to support intelligent Internet applications (knowledge-based systems, agents, etc.). W-ACE covers various issues in supporting knowledge-based handling of the World Wide Web, allowing structured and constraint-based management of WWW information, passive and active views of WWW, as well as a powerful support for concurrent applications. Various examples of complex intelligent applications are presented, to underline the simplicity and the power of the proposed ideas.