In this paper, we reconsider the unfolding-based technique that we have
introduced previously for detecting loops in standard term rewriting. We
improve it by guiding the unfolding process, using distinguished positions in
the rewrite rules. This results in a depth-first computation of the unfoldings,
whereas the original technique was breadth-first. We have implemented this new
approach in our tool NTI and compared it to the previous one on a bunch of
rewrite systems. The results we get are promising (better times, more
successful proofs).Comment: Pre-proceedings paper presented at the 28th International Symposium
on Logic-Based Program Synthesis and Transformation (LOPSTR 2018), Frankfurt
am Main, Germany, 4-6 September 2018 (arXiv:1808.03326