Representing trees with constraints

Abstract

This paper presents a method for representing trees using constraint logic programming over finite domains. We describe a class of trees that is of particular interest to us and how we can represent the set of trees belonging to that class using constraints. The method enables the specification of a set of trees without having to generate all of the members of the set. This allows us to reason about sets of trees that would normally be too large to use. We present this research in the context of a system to generate expressive musical performances and, in particular, how this method can be used to represent musical structure.