A logic-based approach to the design of computing systems would,
undoubtedly, offer many advantages over the imperative paradigm most
commonly applied so far for programming and hardware design and,
consequently, logic, again and again, has been heralded as the basis for
the next generation of computer systems. While logic and formal methods
are indeed gaining ground in many areas of computer science and
artificial intelligence the expected revolution has not yet happened. In
this book the author offers a convincing solution to the ramification
problem and qualification problem associated with the frame problem and
thus contributes to a satisfactory solution of the core problem and
related challenges. Thielscher bases his approach on the fluent
calculus, a first-order Prolog-like formalism allowing for the
description of actions and change.