2 Advantages Declarative. Constraints do not require us to envision how the information is to be used. Of course, a declarative specification will be useful for automated problem solving only if the internal machinery can successfully process the declarative description to solve the problem. Tractable problem classes have been identified. Inference methods mitigate the problems of combinatorial search.
Specialized methods take advantage of problem structure.
Progress has been made in synthesizing specialized programs for specific problem domains. All of this would be irrelevant were not constraints a natural medium for people to express problems in many fields. Infrastructure Several new forums have emerged to bring together the many disciplines that contribute to constraint programming. An annual International Conference on Principles and Practice of Constraint Programming was established in 1995. The proceedings are published in the Springer LNCS series.