An Efficient Implementation of Linear Tabling Based on Dynamic Reordering of Alternatives

Abstract

Tabling is a technique of resolution that overcomes some limitations of traditional Prolog systems in dealing with recursion and redundant sub-computations. We can distinguish two main categories of tabling mechanisms: suspension-based tabling and linear tabling. In suspension-based tabling, a tabled evaluation can be seen as a sequence of sub-computations that suspend and later resume. Linear tabling mechanisms maintain a single execution tree where tabled subgoals always extend the current computation without requiring suspension and resumption of sub-computations. In this work, we present a new and efficient implementation of linear tabling, but for that we have extended an already existent suspension-based implementation, the YapTab engine. Our design is based on dynamic reordering of alternatives but it innovates by considering a strategy that schedules the re-evaluation of tabled calls in a similar manner to the suspension-based strategies of YapTab. Our implementation also shares the underlying execution environment and most of the data structures used to implement tabling in YapTab. We thus argue that all these common features allows us to make a first and fair comparison between suspension-based and linear tabling and, therefore, better understand the advantages and weaknesses of each.