Regular approximations of logic programs and their uses
JP Gallagher, DA De Waal · 1992
Regular approximations of logic programs have a variety of uses, including static analysis for debugging, program specialisation, and machine learning. An algorithm for computing a regular approximation of a normal program is given, and some applications are discussed. The analysis of a "magic set" style of transformation of a program P can be used to derive more precise approximations than can be obtained from P itself. The approximation algorithm given here can also be applied to Prolog programs. 1 Regular Logic Programs Regular structures can be used to approximate programs as shown, for example, in [11], [15], [18]. Regular sets and regular languages have a number of decidable properties and associated computable operations [1], so that approximations of program meanings expressed as regular structures can conveniently be analysed and manipulated. In this paper an algorithm is given, which takes a normal logic program and returns a regular program. The regular program is a safe ...