Version 3 of Control structures for backtracking search

Updated 2002-04-25 21:56:48

KBK (25 April 2002) - The fact that Tcl allows new control structures to be defined at the script level by means of uplevel and upvar has led to its being a popular platform for prototyping search algorithms that require backtracking. The general idea is that you can program a proc that makes a nondeterministic choice, and evaluates a script to follow through on the consequences of that choice.

The Wiki offers one toy example, used for Solving cryptarithms like

    S E N D
  + M O R E
 -----------
  M O N E Y

RS examines some of the possibilities in Playing Prolog and Playing predicate logic. Searching a star in space is also interesting, as is Neil Madden's State Space Searching in Tcl.

http://www.usenix.org/publications/library/proceedings/tcl96/clark.html