Concepts and implementation of a rule-based process engine/sup +/

The key topic is the way how the Merlin process-centered environment provides execution of rule-based persistent software processes. Any software process in Merlin is de- scribed by rules which are executed either in a forward chaining or backward chaining mode and which are made persistent by storing them in an object-oriented data base After a brief introduction to the general Merlin concepts the paper focuses on the representation of rules in the un- derlying data base and their corresponding flexible and ef- ficient execution.