3 ms·

What is Datalog used for nowadays?

AlotOfReading 5mo ago
Other than databases, program analysis. The polonius borrow checker in rustc uses datalog internally. But you can use it for lots of things. Whenever I'm frustrated with graph based tools being slow (like build systems), I run the graph through a datalog engine for comparison. It's usually much, much faster.
gobdovan 5mo ago
General programming [0], static analysis [1], RDF triple stores [2], authorization systems [3], incremental computation [4] [5], graph DBs [6]. But it is kind of hard to define Datalog exactly, since it is an entire family of technologies based on logic, each extending a clean mathematical model differently. [0] https://github.com/flix/flix https://github.com/flix/flix [1] https://github.com/rust-lang/polonius https://github.com/rust-lang/polonius [2] RDFox [3] https://github.com/eclipse-biscuit/biscuit https://github.com/eclipse-biscuit/biscuit [4] https://github.com/vmware-archive/differential-datalog https://github.com/vmware-archive/differential-datalog [5] https://github.com/brurucy/pydbsp https://github.com/brurucy/pydbsp [6] https://github.com/cozodb/cozo https://github.com/cozodb/cozo
- raffael_de 5mo ago
  thanks for your list. appreciated. my question should have been more precise. last time I checked all the Datalog projects I found where either old, unmaintained or have only a single contributor. and that is also true for your examples. I really like Prolog and would love to use Datalog for (RDF) knowledge graph inference.
  - harperlee 5mo ago
    Then use them! Then those projects will cease having a single contributor or being unmaintained. This doesn't need to be a binary decision (either there is no risk or I won't use it), just choose the project / scope with knowledge that there is some risk in a small community; so internal use rather than client facing, specialized uses, etc.
    - raffael_de 5mo ago
      not sure how using a project adds a contributor. but for the latter - I'm not sufficiently competent at Prolog and friends to meaningfully contribute. I do donate money, though, to projects I regularly use - like for example FreeTube or Linux Mint.

Other than databases, program analysis. The polonius borrow checker in rustc uses datalog internally. But you can use it for lots of things. Whenever I'm frustrated with graph based tools being slow (like build systems), I run the graph through a datalog engine for comparison. It's usually much, much faster.

gobdovan 5mo ago

General programming [0], static analysis [1], RDF triple stores [2], authorization systems [3], incremental computation [4] [5], graph DBs [6]. But it is kind of hard to define Datalog exactly, since it is an entire family of technologies based on logic, each extending a clean mathematical model differently. [0] https://github.com/flix/flix https://github.com/flix/flix [1] https://github.com/rust-lang/polonius https://github.com/rust-lang/polonius [2] RDFox [3] https://github.com/eclipse-biscuit/biscuit https://github.com/eclipse-biscuit/biscuit [4] https://github.com/vmware-archive/differential-datalog https://github.com/vmware-archive/differential-datalog [5] https://github.com/brurucy/pydbsp https://github.com/brurucy/pydbsp [6] https://github.com/cozodb/cozo https://github.com/cozodb/cozo

raffael_de 5mo ago
thanks for your list. appreciated. my question should have been more precise. last time I checked all the Datalog projects I found where either old, unmaintained or have only a single contributor. and that is also true for your examples. I really like Prolog and would love to use Datalog for (RDF) knowledge graph inference.
- harperlee 5mo ago
  Then use them! Then those projects will cease having a single contributor or being unmaintained. This doesn't need to be a binary decision (either there is no risk or I won't use it), just choose the project / scope with knowledge that there is some risk in a small community; so internal use rather than client facing, specialized uses, etc.
  - raffael_de 5mo ago
    not sure how using a project adds a contributor. but for the latter - I'm not sufficiently competent at Prolog and friends to meaningfully contribute. I do donate money, though, to projects I regularly use - like for example FreeTube or Linux Mint.