10.9.10 Defining Primitive Constraints

Indexicals are the principal means of defining constraints, but it is usually not necessary to resort to this level of programming—most commonly used constraints are available in a library and/or via macro-expansion. The key feature about indexicals is that they give the programmer precise control over aspects of the operational semantics of the constraints. Trade-offs can be made between the computational cost of the constraints and their pruning power. The indexical language provides many degrees of freedom for the user to select the level of consistency to be maintained depending on application-specific needs.