Abstract
Prnmtive commands representing the concepts of choice, failure, and success are used to describe non-deterministic algorithms for solving a variety of problems. First, the role of the primitives is explained in a manner appealing to the reader's intuition. Then, a solution to the classmal 8-queens problem is presented as a non-deterministic program, and its implementation is described. Two examples follow, showing the usefulness of the primitwes m computer-reded problem solving: the first is a simple question-answering program, the other is a parser for a context-sensitive language. Finally, a brief survey of current and related work is presented whmh includes: additmnal desLrable prumtives, implementation, correctness, efficiency, and theoretical implicatmns

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