Coalgebraic semantics for parallel derivation strategies in logic programming

Abstract

Logic programming, a class of programming languages based on first-order logic, provides simple and efficient tools for goal-oriented proof-search. Logic programming supports recursive computations, and some logic programs resemble the inductive or coinductive definitions written in functional programming languages. In this paper, we give a coalgebraic semantics to logic programming. We show that ground logic programs can be modelled by either P f P f -coalgebras or P f List-coalgebras on Set. We analyse different kinds of derivation strategies and derivation trees (proof-trees, SLD-trees, and-or parallel trees) used in logic programming, and show how they can be modelled coalgebraically. © 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.