Specializing Interpreters using Offline Partial Deduction

We present the latest version of the Logen partial evaluation system for logic programs. In particular we present new binding-types, and show how they can be used to effectively specialise a wide variety of interpreters.We show how to achieve Jones-optimality in a systematic way for several interpreters. Finally, we present and specialise a non-trivial interpreter for a small functional programming language. Experimental results are also presented, highlighting that the Logen system can be a good basis for generating compilers for high-level languages

Deciding Full Branching Time Logic by Program Transformation

We present a method based on logic program transformation, for verifying Computation Tree Logic (CTL*) properties of finite state reactive systems. The finite state systems and the CTL* properties we want to verify, are encoded as logic programs on infinite lists. Our verification method consists of two steps. In the first step we transform the logic program that encodes the given system and the given property, into a monadic ω -program, that is, a stratified program defining nullary or unary predicates on infinite lists. This transformation is performed by applying unfold/fold rules that preserve the perfect model of the initial program. In the second step we verify the property of interest by using a proof method for monadic ω-program

Non-leftmost Unfolding in Partial Evaluation of Logic Programs with Impure Predicates

Abstract. Partial evaluation of logic programs which contain impure predicates poses non-trivial challenges. Impure predicates include those which produce side-effects, raise errors (or exceptions), and those whose truth value varies according to the degree of instantiation of arguments 4. In particular, non-leftmost unfolding steps can produce incorrect results since the independence of the computation rule no longer holds in the presence of impure predicates. Existing proposals allow non-leftmost unfolding steps, but at the cost of accuracy: bindings and failure are not propagated backwards to predicates which are potentially impure. In this work we propose a partial evaluation scheme which substantially reduces the situations in which such backpropagation has to be avoided. With this aim, our partial evaluator takes into account the information about purity of predicates expressed in terms of assertions. This allows achieving some optimizations which are not feasible using existing partial evaluation techniques. We argue that our proposal goes beyond existing ones in that it is a) accurate, since the classification of pure vs impure is done at the level of atoms instead of predicates, b) extensible, as the information about purity can be added to programs using assertions without having to modify the partial evaluator itself, and c) automatic, since (backwards) analysis can be used to automatically infer the required assertions. Our approach has been implemented in the context of CiaoPP, the abstract interpretation-based preprocessor of the Ciao logic programming system.

Homeomorphic Embedding for Online Termination of Symbolic Methods

Well-quasi orders in general, and homeomorphic embedding in particular, have gained popularity to ensure the termination of techniques for program analysis, specialisation, transformation, and verification. In this paper we survey and discuss this use of homeomorphic embedding and clarify the advantages of such an approach over one using well-founded orders. We also discuss various extensions of the homeomorphic embedding relation. We conclude with a study of homeomorphic embedding in the context of metaprogramming, presenting some new (positive and negative) results and open problems

A hybrid approach to conjunctive partial evaluation of logic programs

Conjunctive partial deduction is a well-known technique for the partial evaluation of logic programs. The original formulation follows the so called online approach where all termination decisions are taken on-the-fly. In contrast, offline partial evaluators first analyze the source program and produce an annotated version so that the partial evaluation phase should only follow these annotations to ensure the termination of the process. In this work, we introduce a lightweight approach to conjunctive partial deduction that combines some of the advantages of both online and offline styles of partial evaluation. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.This work has been partially supported by the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación under grant TIN2008-06622-C03-02 and by the Generalitat Valenciana under grant ACOMP/2010/042.Vidal Oriola, GF. (2011). A hybrid approach to conjunctive partial evaluation of logic programs. En Logic-Based Program Synthesis and Transformation. Springer Verlag (Germany). 6564:200-214. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-20551-4_13S2002146564Ben-Amram, A., Codish, M.: A SAT-Based Approach to Size Change Termination with Global Ranking Functions. In: Ramakrishnan, C.R., Rehof, J. (eds.) TACAS 2008. LNCS, vol. 4963, pp. 218–232. Springer, Heidelberg (2007)Bruynooghe, M., De Schreye, D., Martens, B.: A General Criterion for Avoiding Infinite Unfolding during Partial Deduction of Logic Programs. In: Saraswat, V., Ueda, K. (eds.) Proc. 1991 Int’l Symp. on Logic Programming, pp. 117–131 (1991)Christensen, N.H., Glück, R.: Offline Partial Evaluation Can Be as Accurate as Online Partial Evaluation. ACM Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems 26(1), 191–220 (2004)Codish, M., Taboch, C.: A Semantic Basis for the Termination Analysis of Logic Programs. Journal of Logic Programming 41(1), 103–123 (1999)De Schreye, D., Glück, R., Jørgensen, J., Leuschel, M., Martens, B., Sørensen, M.H.: Conjunctive Partial Deduction: Foundations, Control, Algorihtms, and Experiments. Journal of Logic Programming 41(2&3), 231–277 (1999)Hruza, J., Stepánek, P.: Speedup of logic programs by binarization and partial deduction. TPLP 4(3), 355–380 (2004)Jones, N.D., Gomard, C.K., Sestoft, P.: Partial Evaluation and Automatic Program Generation. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs (1993)Leuschel, M.: Homeomorphic Embedding for Online Termination of Symbolic Methods. In: Mogensen, T.Æ., Schmidt, D.A., Sudborough, I.H. (eds.) The Essence of Computation. LNCS, vol. 2566, pp. 379–403. Springer, Heidelberg (2002)Leuschel, M.: The DPPD (Dozens of Problems for Partial Deduction) Library of Benchmarks (2007), http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~mal/systems/dppd.htmlLeuschel, M., Elphick, D., Varea, M., Craig, S., Fontaine, M.: The Ecce and Logen Partial Evaluators and Their Web Interfaces. In: Proc. of PEPM 2006, pp. 88–94. IBM Press (2006)Leuschel, M., Vidal, G.: Fast Offline Partial Evaluation of Large Logic Programs. In: Hanus, M. (ed.) LOPSTR 2008. LNCS, vol. 5438, pp. 119–134. Springer, Heidelberg (2009)Lloyd, J.W., Shepherdson, J.C.: Partial Evaluation in Logic Programming. Journal of Logic Programming 11, 217–242 (1991)Somogyi, Z.: A System of Precise Modes for Logic Programs. In: Shapiro, E.Y. (ed.) Proc. of Third Int’l Conf. on Logic Programming, pp. 769–787. The MIT Press, Cambridge (1986

Verification of Java Bytecode using Analysis and Transformation of Logic Programs

State of the art analyzers in the Logic Programming (LP) paradigm are nowadays mature and sophisticated. They allow inferring a wide variety of global properties including termination, bounds on resource consumption, etc. The aim of this work is to automatically transfer the power of such analysis tools for LP to the analysis and verification of Java bytecode (JVML). In order to achieve our goal, we rely on well-known techniques for meta-programming and program specialization. More precisely, we propose to partially evaluate a JVML interpreter implemented in LP together with (an LP representation of) a JVML program and then analyze the residual program. Interestingly, at least for the examples we have studied, our approach produces very simple LP representations of the original JVML programs. This can be seen as a decompilation from JVML to high-level LP source. By reasoning about such residual programs, we can automatically prove in the CiaoPP system some non-trivial properties of JVML programs such as termination, run-time error freeness and infer bounds on its resource consumption. We are not aware of any other system which is able to verify such advanced properties of Java bytecode

Improving Prolog Programs: Refactoring for Prolog

Refactoring is an established technique from the OO-community to restructure code: it aims at improving software readability, maintainability and extensibility. Although refactoring is not tied to the OO-paradigm in particular, its ideas have not been applied to Logic Programming until now. This paper applies the ideas of refactoring to Prolog programs. A catalogue is presented listing refactorings classified according to scope. Some of the refactorings have been adapted from the OO-paradigm, while others have been specifically designed for Prolog. Also the discrepancy between intended and operational semantics in Prolog is addressed by some of the refactorings. In addition, ViPReSS, a semi-automatic refactoring browser, is discussed and the experience with applying \vipress to a large Prolog legacy system is reported. Our main conclusion is that refactoring is not only a viable technique in Prolog but also a rather desirable one.Comment: To appear in ICLP 200

Symbolic Reachability Analysis of B through ProB and LTSmin

We present a symbolic reachability analysis approach for B that can provide a significant speedup over traditional explicit state model checking. The symbolic analysis is implemented by linking ProB to LTSmin, a high-performance language independent model checker. The link is achieved via LTSmin's PINS interface, allowing ProB to benefit from LTSmin's analysis algorithms, while only writing a few hundred lines of glue-code, along with a bridge between ProB and C using ZeroMQ. ProB supports model checking of several formal specification languages such as B, Event-B, Z and TLA. Our experiments are based on a wide variety of B-Method and Event-B models to demonstrate the efficiency of the new link. Among the tested categories are state space generation and deadlock detection; but action detection and invariant checking are also feasible in principle. In many cases we observe speedups of several orders of magnitude. We also compare the results with other approaches for improving model checking, such as partial order reduction or symmetry reduction. We thus provide a new scalable, symbolic analysis algorithm for the B-Method and Event-B, along with a platform to integrate other model checking improvements via LTSmin in the future

Model-Based Approaches for Validating Business Critical Systems

Developing a business critical system can involve considerable difficulties. This paper describes part of a new methodology that tackles this problem using co-evolution of models and prototypes to strengthen the relationship between modelling and testing. We illustrate how different modelling frameworks, Promela/SPIN and B/ProB/AtelierB, can be used to implement this idea. As a way to reinforce integration between modelling and testing, we were able to anticipate problems and guide the development of our software in a safer way, increasing our understanding of the system and its reliabilit