Abstract
This survey of the theory and applications of rewriting with equations discusses the existence and uniqueness of normal forms, the KnuthBendix completion procedure and its variations, as well as rewriting-based (functional and logic) programming and (equational, first-order, and inductive) theorem proving. Ordinary, associative-commutative, and conditional rewriting are covered. Current areas of research are summarized and an extensive bibliography is provided.
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1.Rewriting
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Benninghofen, B., Kemmerich, S., Richter, M. M.: Systems of Reductions, vol. 277 of Lect. Notes in Computer Sci. Springer-Verlag, Berlin (1987)
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2.Termination
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Dershowitz, N.: Orderings for term-rewriting systems. Theoretical Comput. Sci. 17 (1982) 279–301
Dershowitz, N.: Termination of rewriting. J. Symb. Comput. 3 (1987) 69–115. Corrigendum: 4, 3 (1987), 409–410
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3.Confluence
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4.Completion
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Kapur, D., Musser, D. R., Narendran, P.: Only prime superpositions need be considered for the Knuth-Bendix procedure. J. Symb. Comput. 4 (1988) 19–36
Bachmair, L., Dershowitz, N., Plaisted, D. A.: Completion without failure. In: Aït-Kaci, H., Nivat, M., eds., Resolution of Equations in Algebraic Structures, vol. 2: Rewriting Techniques. Academic Press, New York (1989) 1–30
Dershowitz, N.: Completion and its applications. In: Aït-Kaci, H., Nivat, M., eds., Resolution of Equations in Algebraic Structures, vol. 2: Rewriting Techniques. Academic Press, New York (1989) 31–86
Lescanne, P.: Completion procedures as transition rules + control. In: Diaz, M., Orejas, F., eds., Proc. of the Conference on Theory and Practice of Software Development, vol. 351 of Lect. Notes in Computer Science. Springer-Verlag, Berlin (1989) 28–41
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5.Validity
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Hsiang, J., Rusinowitch, M.: On word problems in equational theories. In: Ottmann, T., ed., Proc. of the Fourteenth EATCS International Conference on Automata, Languages and Programming (Karlsruhe, West Germany), vol. 267 of Lect. Notes in Computer Sci. Springer-Verlag, Berlin (1987) 54–71
Martin, U., Nipkow, T.: Ordered completion. In: Stickel, M., ed., Proc. of the Tenth International Conference on Automated Deduction (Kaiserslautern, West Germany), vol. 449 of Lect. Notes in Computer Sci. Springer-Verlag, Berlin (1990) 366–380
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6.Satisfiability
Fay, M.: First-order unification in an equational theory. In: Proc. of the Fourth Workshop on Automated Deduction, Austin, TX (1979) 161–167
Hullot, J.-M.: Canonical forms and unification. In: Kowalski, R., ed., Proc. of the Fifth International Conference on Automated Deduction (Les Arcs, France), vol. 87 of Lect. Notes in Computer Science. Springer-Verlag, Berlin (1980) 318–334
Dershowitz, N., Sivakumar, G.: Solving goals in equational languages. In: Kaplan, S., Jouannaud, J.-P., eds., Proc. of the First International Workshop on Conditional Term Rewriting Systems (Orsay, France), vol. 308 of Lect. Notes in Computer Sci. Springer-Verlag, Berlin (1987) 45–55
Nutt, W., Réty, P., Smolka, G.: Basic narrowing revisited. J. Symb. Comput. 7 (1989) 295–318
Bockmayr, A., Krischer, S., Werner, A.: An optimal narrowing strategy for general canonical systems. In: Rusinowitch, M., ed., Proc. of the Third International Workshop on Conditional Rewriting Systems (Pont-a-Mousson, France, July 1992), vol. 656 of Lect. Notes in Computer Sci. Springer-Verlag, Berlin (1993)
7.AC-completion
Peterson, G. E., Stickel, M. E.: Complete sets of reductions for some equational theories. J. Assoc. Comput. Mach. 28 (1981) 233–264
Jouannaud, J.-P., Kirchner, H.: Completion of a set of rules modulo a set of equations. SIAM J. Comput. 15 (1986) 1155–1194
Bachmair, L., Dershowitz, N.: Completion for rewriting modulo a congruence. Theoretical Comput. Sci. 67 (1989)
Zhang, H., Kapur, D.: Unnecessary inferences in associative-commutative completion procedures. Mathematical Systems Theory 23 (1990) 175–206
8.Conditional rewriting
Bergstra, J. A., Klop, J. W.: Conditional rewrite rules: Confluency and termination. J. Comput. System Sciences 32 (1986) 323–362
Kaplan, S.: Simplifying conditional term rewriting systems: Unification, termination and confluence. J. Symb. Comput. 4 (1987) 295–334
Padawitz, P.: Computing in Horn Clause Theories, vol. 16 of EATCS Monographs on Theoretical Computer Science. Springer-Verlag, Berlin (1988)
Dershowitz, N., Okada, M., Sivakumar, G.: Canonical conditional rewrite systems. In: Proc. of the Ninth Conference on Automated Deduction (Argonne, IL), vol. 310 of Lect. Notes in Computer Sci. Springer-Verlag, Berlin (1988) 538–549
Kaplan, S., Rémy, J.-L.: Completion algorithms for conditional rewriting systems. In: Aït-Kaci, H., Nivat, M., eds., Resolution of Equations in Algebraic Structures, vol. 2: Rewriting Techniques. Academic Press, Boston (1989) 141–170
Klop, J. W., de Vrijer, R. C.: Extended term rewriting systems. In: Kaplan, S., Okada, M., eds., Proc. of the Second International Workshop on Conditional and Typed Rewriting Systems (Montreal, Canada, June 1990), vol. 516 of Lect. Notes in Computer Sci. Springer-Verlag, Berlin (1991) 26–50
Padawitz, P.: Reduction and narrowing for Horn clause theories. Comput. J. 34 (1991) 42–51
Ganzinger, H.: A completion procedure for conditional equations. J. Symb. Comput. 11 (1991) 51–81
9.Programming
O'Donnell, M. J.: Computing in systems described by equations, vol. 58 of Lect. Notes in Computer Sci. Springer-Verlag, Berlin (1977)
Guttag, J. V., Horowitz, E., Musser, D. R.: Abstract data types and software validation. Commun. ACM 21 (1978) 1048–1064
Futatsugi, K., Goguen, J. A., Jouannaud, J.-P., Meseguer, J.: Principles of OBJ2. In: Reid, B., ed., Conference Record of the Twelfth Annual ACM Symposium on Principles of Programming Languages. Association for Computing Machinery, New Orleans, LA (1985) 52–66
Dershowitz, N.: Computing with rewrite systems. Information and Control 64 (1985) 122–157
O'Donnell, M. J.: Equational Logic as a Programming Language. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA (1985)
Reddy, U. S.: On the relationship between logic and functional languages. In: DeGroot, D., Lindstrom, G., eds., Logic Programming: Functions, Relations, and Equations. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ (1986) 3–36
Goguen, J. A., Meseguer, J.: Eqlog: Equality, types, and generic modules for logic programming. In: DeGroot, D., Lindstrom, G., eds., Logic Programming: Functions, Relations, and Equations. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ (1986) 295–363
Dershowitz, N., Plaisted, D. A.: Equational programming. In: Hayes, J. E., Michie, D., Richards, J., eds., Machine Intelligence 11: The logic and acquisition of knowledge. Oxford Press, Oxford (1988) 21–56
Hölldobler, S.: Foundations of Equational Logic Programming, vol. 353 of Lect. Notes in Artificial Intelligence. Springer-Verlag, Berlin (1989)
Dershowitz, N., Okada, M.: A rationale for conditional equational programming. Theoretical Comput. Sci. 75 (1990) 111–138
Huet, G., Lévy, J.-J.: Computations in orthogonal rewriting systems, I and II. In: Lassez, J.-L., Plotkin, G., eds., Computational Logic: Essays in Honor of Alan Robinson. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA (1991) 395–443
10.Theorem proving
Lankford, D. S.: Canonical inference. Memo ATP-32, Automatic Theorem Proving Project, University of Texas, Austin, TX (1975)
Lankford, D. S., Ballantyne, A. M.: The refutation completeness of blocked permutative narrowing and resolution. In: Proc. of the Fourth Workshop on Automated Deduction, Austin, TX (1979) 53–59
Musser, D. R.: On proving inductive properties of abstract data types. In: Proc. of the Seventh ACM Symposium on Principles of Programming Languages, Las Vegas, NV (1980) 154–162
Huet, G., Hullot, J.-M.: Proofs by induction in equational theories with constructors. J. Comput. System Sciences 25 (1982) 239–266
Peterson, G. E.: A technique for establishing completeness results in theorem proving with equality. SIAM J. Comput. 12 (1983) 82–100
Plaisted, D. A.: Semantic confluence tests and completion methods. Information and Control 65 (1985) 182–215
Hsiang, J.: Refutational theorem proving using term-rewriting systems. Artif. Intell. 25 (1985) 255–300
Paul, E.: Equational methods in first order predicate calculus. J. Symb. Comput. 1 (1985) 7–29
Kapur, D., Musser, D. R.: Proof by consistency. Artif. Intell. 31 (1987) 125–157
Kapur, D., Narendran, P., Zhang, H.: On sufficient completeness and related properties of term rewriting systems. Acta Inf. 24 (1987) 395–415
Jouannaud, J.-P., Kounalis, E.: Automatic proofs by induction in equational theories without constructors. Info. and Comput. 81 (1989) 1–33
Küchlin, W.: Inductive completion by ground proof transformation. In: Aït-Kaci, H., Nivat, M., eds., Resolution of Equations in Algebraic Structures, vol. 2: Rewriting Techniques. Academic Press, New York (1989) 211–244
Comon, H., Lescanne, P.: Equational problems and disunification. J. Symb. Comput. 7 (1989) 371–425
Fribourg, L.: A strong restriction of the inductive completion procedure. J. Symb. Comput. 8 (1989) 253–276
Reddy, U. S.: Term rewriting induction. In: Stickel, M., ed., Proc. of the Tenth International Conference on Automated Deduction (Kaiserslautern, West Germany), vol. 449 of Lect. Notes in Computer Sci. Springer-Verlag, Berlin (1990)
Dershowitz, N., Pinchover, E.: Inductive synthesis of equational programs. In: Proc. of the Eighth National Conference on Artificial Intelligence. AAAI, Boston, MA (1990) 234–239
Dershowitz, N.: Ordering-based strategies for Horn clauses. In: Proc. of the Twelfth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Sydney, Australia (1991) 118–124
Kapur, D., Narendran, P., Zhang, H.: Automating inductionless induction using test sets. J. Symb. Comput. 11 (1991) 83–112
Future research
Goguen, J. A., Kirchner, C., Meseguer, J.: Concurrent term rewriting as a model of computation. In: Keller, R., Fasel, J., eds., Proc. of Graph Reduction Workshop (Santa Fe, NM), vol. 279 of Lect. Notes in Computer Sci. Springer-Verlag (1987) 53–93
Toyama, Y., Klop, J. W., Barendregt, H. P.: Termination for the direct sum of left-linear term rewriting systems. In: Dershowitz, N., ed., Proc. of the Third International Conference on Rewriting Techniques and Applications (Chapel Hill), vol. 355 of Lect. Notes in Computer Sci. Springer-Verlag, Berlin (1989) 477–491
Dick, A. J. J., Watson, P.: Order-sorted term rewriting. Comput. J. 34 (1991) 16–19
Dershowitz, N., Kaplan, S., Plaisted, D. A.: Rewrite, rewrite, rewrite, rewrite, rewrite,.... Theoretical Comput. Sci. 83 (1991) 71–96
Dershowitz, N., Jouannaud, J.-P., Klop, J. W.: Open problems in rewriting. In: Book, R., ed., Proc. of the Fourth International Conference on Rewriting Techniques and Applications (Como, Italy), vol. 488 of Lect. Notes in Computer Sci. Springer-Verlag, Berlin (1991) 445–456
Jouannaud, J.-P., Okada, M.: Executable higher-order algebraic specification languages. In: Proc. of the Sixth IEEE Symposium on Logic in Computer Science (1991)
Bachmair, L.: Associative-commutative reduction orderings. Inf. Process. Lett. 43 (1992) 21–27
Hsiang, J., Kirchner, H., Lescanne, P., Rusinowitch, M.: Automated theorem proving in the presence of equalities. J. Autom. Reas. 14 (1992) 71–100
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Dershowitz, N. (1993). A taste of rewrite systems. In: Lauer, P.E. (eds) Functional Programming, Concurrency, Simulation and Automated Reasoning. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 693. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-56883-2_11
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