A method for Specializing Logic Programs

Abstract

A specialization method for logic programs that allows one to restrict a general program to special cases by means of constraint predicates is presented. A set of basic transformation operations, which are shown to produce equivalent programs, is defined. The method uses these operations for propagating the constraint information through the program and for consequently simplifying it whenever possible. Some examples of specializations are given, and some improvements and developments of the method are discussed. © 1990, ACM. All rights reserved.