Determinacy Inference for Logic Programs: 14th European Symposium on Programming, ESOP 2005, Held as Part of the Joint European Conferences on Theory and Practice of Software, ETAPS 2005, Edinburgh, UK, April 4-8, 2005. Proceedings

This paper presents a determinacy inference analysis for logic programs. The analysis infers determinacy conditions that, if satisfied by a call, ensures that it computes at most one answer and that answer is generated only once. The principal component of the technique is a goal-independent analysis of individual clauses. This derives a condition for a call that ensures only one clause in the matching predicate possesses a successful derivation. Another key component of the analysis is backwards reasoning stage that strengthens these conditions to derive properties on a call that assure determinacy. The analysis has applications in program development, implementation and specialisation.