Foundations of Logic Programming

Book excerpt: This book gives an account oC the mathematical Coundations oC logic programming. I have attempted to make the book selC-contained by including prooCs of almost all the results needed. The only prerequisites are some Camiliarity with a logic programming language, such as PROLOG, and a certain mathematical maturity. For example, the reader should be Camiliar with induction arguments and be comCortable manipulating logical expressions. Also the last chapter assumes some acquaintance with the elementary aspects of metric spaces, especially properties oC continuous mappings and compact spaces. Chapter 1 presents the declarative aspects of logic programming. This chapter contains the basic material Crom first order logic and fixpoint theory which will be required. The main concepts discussed here are those oC a logic program, model, correct answer substitution and fixpoint. Also the unification algorithm is discussed in some detail. Chapter 2 is concerned with the procedural semantics oC logic programs. The declarative concepts are implemented by means oC a specialized Corm oC resolution, called SLD-resolution. The main results of this chapter concern the soundness and completeness oC SLD-resolution and the independence oC the computation rule. We also discuss the implications of omitting the occur check from PROLOG implementations. Chapter 3 discusses negation. Current PROLOG systems implement a form of negation by means of the negation as failure rule. The main results of this chapter are the soundness and completeness oC the negation as failure rule.