Abstract
It has been argued elsewhere that a logic programming language with function variables and λ-abstractions within terms makes a very good meta-programming language, especially when an object language contains notions of bound variables and scope. The λProlog logic programming language and the closely related Elf and Isabelle systems provide meta-programs with both function variables and λ-abstractions by containing implementations of higher-order unification. In this paper, we present a logic programming language, called L λ, that also contains both function variables and λ-abstractions, but certain restriction are placed on occurrences of function variables. As a result, an implementation of L λ does not need to implement full higher-order unification. Instead, an extension to first-order unification that respects bound variable names and scopes is all that is required. Such unification problems are shown to be decidable and to possess most general unifiers when unifiers exist. A unification algorithm and logic programming interpreter are described and proved correct. Several examples of using L λ as a meta-programming language are presented.
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© 1991 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Miller, D. (1991). A logic programming language with lambda-abstraction, function variables, and simple unification. In: Schroeder-Heister, P. (eds) Extensions of Logic Programming. ELP 1989. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 475. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0038698
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0038698
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