Compiling a rule database program into a C/SQL application

The design and the implementation of a rule database language (RDL) compiler is presented. In this design, the RDL/C language supports both declarative programming based on a production rule language and C-based procedural programming. The data model is relational. This implies that all rule programs can be solved without having to download data from the database management system (DBMS) into some working memory. The language supports domain variables which can appear in rules. These variables are monitored by the inference engine and included in the semantics of rule firing. A partial ordering among rules is available to the user. The RDL/C compiler translates RDL/C source code into C code with embedded structured query language (SQL) statements. Its implementation is compared to fully integrated deductive databases and to loosely coupled systems. It is shown how the rule-based paradigm for a database can be used as a framework for a general-purpose database application generator