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The occur-check problem in Prolog

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Abstract

We present a method for preprocessing Prolog programs so that their operational semantics will be given by the first-order predicate calculus. Most Prolog implementations do not use a full unification algorithm, for efficiency reasons. The result is that it is possible to create terms having loops in them, whose semantics is not adequately described by first-order logic. Our method finds places where such loops may be created, and adds tests to detect them. This should not appreciably slow down the execution of most Prolog programs.

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References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, University of Illinois, 1304 West Springfield Avenue, 61801, Urbana, Illinois, USA

    David A. Plaisted

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  1. David A. Plaisted
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Additional information

Copyright © 1984 IEEE. Reprinted, with permission, from 1984 International Symposium On Logic Programming, February 6–9, 1984, Atlantic City, NJ, pp. 272–280.

This work was partially supported by the National Science Foundation under grants MCS 81-09831 and MCS 83-07755.

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Plaisted, D.A. The occur-check problem in Prolog. New Gener Comput 2, 309–322 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03037324

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03037324

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