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Re: csp as database query language



Campbell, John wrote:
Dear All

The mindset of most people using CSP (or manifestations
of it like OCCAM) is to write programs to *make* something
happen.  I've been thinking the last few days that there
might be a useful alternative interpretation.
It seems to me that you could write a CSP description of
a *hypothetical* process that might be at work in a large
data base.  You could do a probablistic analysis to see
how many matches you'd expect in a random system, and test the csp with the real system to see actual matches.

My only comment is that there is a great deal of theoretical work on probabilistic CSP. Gavin Lowe among others has worked on this. I don't know enough about it to know how it relates to your ideas. And Jon K might want to comment on CSP and databases...

Adrian