Learning to Support Constraint Programmers

This paper describes the Adaptive Constraint Engine (ACE), an ambitious ongoing research project to support constraint programmers, both human and machine. The program begins with substantial knowledge about constraint satisfaction. The program harnesses a cognitively oriented architecture—FOr the Right Reasons (FORR) to manage search heuristics and to learn new ones. ACE can transfer what it learns on simple problems to solve more difficult ones, and can readily export its knowledge to ordinary constraint solvers. It currently serves both as a learner and as a test bed for the constraint community.