Control Issues in Partial Deduction: The Ever Ending Story
Michaël Leuschel, Maurice Bruynooghe · ePrints Soton (University of Southampton) · 2000
Partial deduction is a source-to-source technique for specialising logic programs. This is (mostly) done by a well-automated application of parts of the Burstall and Darlington unfold/fold transformation framework. One of the main challenges of partial deduction is automatic control, which has to ensure correctness, efficiency, and termination. In this survey and tutorial, we present the essential developments over the past 10 years, and discuss their respective merits and shortcomings. We also present the current state of the art and discuss areas where further research is needed to enable more widespread practical use of partial deduction and realise its potential as a tool for systematic program development.