PAntUDE - an anti-unification algorithm for expressing refined generalizations
Cornelia Fischer · OpenGrey (Institut de l'Information Scientifique et Technique) · 1994
In this paper some improvements for the basic algorithm for anti-unification are presented. The standard (basic) algorithm for anti-unification still may give too general answers with respect to the intended use of the result. 'Too general' means obtaining an unwanted answer when instantiating some variables of the antiunification output term. To avoid this, a term sometimes should be generalized by regarding certain (semantic) restrictions. In PAntUDE (partial anti-unification with domains and exlusions) two principal improvements of the basic algorithm were implemented and tested: it can use masks for preventing anti-unification of certain arguments (partial anti-unification); it can also use finite domains for enumerating input-term constants instead of introducing a new (universally quantified) variable, and finite exclusions for specifying forbidden constants (anti-unification with domains and exclusions). (orig.)