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An abstract machine for tabled execution of fixed-order stratified logic programs

Editor: William Pugh Authors:

Konstantinos Sagonas,

Terrance SwiftAuthors Info & Claims

ACM Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems (TOPLAS), Volume 20, Issue 3

Pages 586 - 634

https://doi.org/10.1145/291889.291897

Published: 01 May 1998 Publication History

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Abstract

SLG resolution uses tabling to evaluate nonfloundering normal logic pr ograms according to the well-founded semantics. The SLG-WAM, which forms the engine of the XSB system, can compute in-memory recursive queries an order of magnitute faster than current deductive databases. At the same time, the SLG-WAM tightly intergrates Prolog code with tabled SLG code, and executes Prolog code with minimal overhead compared to the WAM. As a result, the SLG-WAM brings to logic programming important termination and complexity properties of deductive databases. This article describes the architecture of the SLG-WAM for a powerful class of programs, the class of fixed-order dynamically stratified programs. We offer a detailed description of the algorithms, data structures, and instructions that the SLG-WAM adds to the WAM, and a performance analysis of engine overhead due to the extensions.

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An abstract machine for tabled execution of fixed-order stratified logic programs

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Reviews

Reviewer: Hans J. Schneider

The standard implementation of Prolog by SLDNF resolution results in lack of termination and also results in exponential complexity. SLG resolution (linear resolution with a selection function for general logic programs) is an alternative approach that uses tables to store intermediate results. This paper reports on such a system, which brings the termination and complexity properties of deductive databases to logic programming. The system is based on Warren's abstract machine (WAM). After motivating the approach, the authors present terminology and basic definitions of SLG resolution in section 2. The tabling technique is explained using an example. Operations to implement definite programs are introduced on an intuitive level. Section 3 starts by presenting the operations to implement tabling. Next, the authors consider the interfaces between table space and runtime stacks and discuss a special evaluation strategy, batched evaluation. The main part of the paper ends by defining the extension to WAM's instruction set formally and describing some implementation aspects in detail. Sections 4 through 6 extend the previous results to a rather powerful class of programs allowing negation, that is, fixed-order (left-to-right) dynamically stratified programs. The authors show that this class can be efficiently evaluated with small modifications of the definite machine model. Finally, some benchmark tests show that the overhead imposed on Prolog programs that do not include tabled predicates is small. This clearly written research contribution assumes that readers have some knowledge of implementing logic programming languages.

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cover image ACM Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems

ACM Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems Volume 20, Issue 3

May 1998

248 pages

ISSN:0164-0925

EISSN:1558-4593

DOI:10.1145/291889

Editor:
William Pugh
Univ. of Maryland, College Park

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 01 May 1998

Published in TOPLAS Volume 20, Issue 3

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Index Terms

Recommendations

Termination proofs for logic programs with tabling

On stratified disjunctive programs

Higher-order abstract syntax in classical higher-order logic

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