catflap.org Online Dictionary Query

  declarative language
       
          A general term for a relational language or a functional
          language, as opposed to an imperative language.  Imperative
          (or procedural) languages specify explicit sequences of steps
          to follow to produce a result, while declarative languages
          describe relationships between variables in terms of functions
          inference+rules+and+the+language+executor+({interpreter" rel="nofollow">or inference rules and the language executor ({interpreter
          or compiler) applies some fixed algorithm to these
          relations to produce a result.  The most common examples of
          declarative languages are logic programming languages such
          as Prolog and functional languages like Haskell.
       
          See also production system.
       
          (1994-11-23)