Introduction

CiaoPP is the abstract interpretation-based preprocessor of the Ciao multi-paradigm program development environment. CiaoPP can perform a number of program debugging, analysis, and source-to-source transformation tasks on (Ciao) Prolog programs. These tasks include:

The information generated by analysis, program properties to be verified, descriptions of the system libraries, directives provided to guide analysis, etc. are all written in the same assertion language, which is in turn also processed by the Ciao system documentation generator, lpdoc.

CiaoPP is distributed under the GNU general public license.

How to use this manual

This is a reference manual. I also includes a part on the CiaoPP internals. You can use this manual to:

  • Look up descriptions for the commands, flags, options, domains, transformations, etc. of CiaoPP. In the html versions of the manual you can use the search facility to this end. In other versions the Predicate/Method Definition Index can help you in locating commands; the Regular Type Definition Index can help in locating the definitions of the types associated to the arguments of commands; the Concept Definition Index may help in locating the part of the manual where a particular feature of CiaoPP is described; and the Global Index includes all of the above plus references to pages where the command, type, or concept is used (not necessarily defined).

  • Learn about how to extend CiaoPP, for example by defining new analysis domains.

  • Learn about CiaoPP internals.

Since this is a reference manual, to begin using CiaoPP, we suggest you start by following one or more of the companion CiaoPP tutorials that are available in the Ciao system documentation.

This manual assumes in some places some familiarity with the techniques that implement the different functionalities, such as abstract interpretation, partial evaluation, etc. However, references are included to technical papers that explain in detail such techniques.

Note

Since we are often merging new functionality into the CiaoPP distribution from more experimental versions, you may find sometimes that some documented functionality in this manual is not available or not working properly. We will be grateful if you report any missing functionality or bugs you find.

(Prior changelogs not lpdoc-based, probably lost?)

[0.1.1] - 1993-10-1

First version of support.pl. (Francisco Bueno).

[0.1.0] - 1993-10-1

First version of m_ciaopp.pl (Francisco Bueno).