Logical Loops

We present a concrete proposal for enhancing Prolog and Prolog based Constraint Logic Programming languages with a new language construct, the logical loop. This is a shorthand notation for the most commonly used recursive control structure: the iteration or tail recursion. We argue that this enhancement fits well with the existing language concepts, enhances productivity and maintainability, and helps newcomers to the language by providing concepts that are familiar from many other programming languages. The language extension is implemented and has been in everyday use over several years within the ECLiPSesystem.