Abstract
Many analyses for logic programming languages use Boolean functions to express dependencies between variables or argument positions. Examples include groundness analysis, arguably the most important analysis for logic programs, finiteness analysis and functional dependency analysis. We identify two classes of Boolean functions that have been used: positive and definite functions, and we systematically investigate these classes and their efficient implementation for dependency analyses. We provide syntactic characterizations and study their algebraic properties. In particular, we show that both classes are closed under existential quantification. We investigate representations for these classes based on: reduced ordered binary decision diagrams (ROBDDs), disjunctive normal form, conjunctive normal form, Blake canonical form, dual Blake canonical form, and a form specific to definite functions. We give an empirical comparison of these different representations for groundness analysis.
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Armstrong, T., Marriott, K., Schachte, P., Søndergaard, H. (1994). Boolean functions for dependency analysis: Algebraic properties and efficient representation. In: Le Charlier, B. (eds) Static Analysis. SAS 1994. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 864. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-58485-4_46
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-58485-4_46
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