ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Answer-set programming

Answer-set programming (ASP) is like a little game you play with a computer. The computer is like your friend who loves to solve puzzles.

In this game, you give the computer a bunch of rules (like instructions). These rules tell the computer what to do when it’s trying to solve a problem.

The problem could be anything! For example, let’s say your problem is figuring out what kind of cake to make for a party. You tell the computer that the cake has to be chocolate or vanilla (those are the choices), but it can’t have nuts.

Now, the fun part! You and the computer get to pretend you’re making the cake together. You can ask the computer questions like, “Can we put nuts in the cake?” And the computer will say, “No, because we said it can’t have nuts.”

Whenever you ask a question, the computer looks at all the rules you gave it and finds the answer that makes the most sense. This is called finding the “answer set.”

When you’ve asked enough questions and you’re happy with the answer set, you can use that to make your cake! Yay!

But ASP isn’t just for baking cakes. It’s actually used to solve all kinds of problems, like figuring out the best way to schedule your classes for school or how to make sure all the robots in a factory are working together.

So, in summary: Answer-set programming is a game you play with a computer where you give it rules and then ask it questions. The computer uses those rules to find the best answer, which you can then use to solve lots of different problems.