Work

A Simple Functional Presentation and an Inductive Correctness Proof of the Horn Algorithm

Year: 2018

Type: article

Abstract: We present a recursive formulation of the Horn algorithm for deciding the satisfiability of propositional clauses. The usual presentations in imperative pseudo-code are informal and not suitable for simple proofs of its main properties. By defining the algorithm as a recursive function (computing a least fixed-point), we achieve: 1) a concise, yet rigorous, formalisation; 2) a clear form of visualising executions of the algorithm, step-by-step; 3) precise results, simple to state and with clean inductive proofs.

Source: Electronic Proceedings in Theoretical Computer Science

DOI: 10.4204/eptcs.278.6

Author: António Ravara

Institutions: Laboratório para a Ciência da Computação e Informática, Universidade Nova de Lisboa

Language: English

Topic: Logic, programming, and type systems

Subfield: Artificial Intelligence

Field: Computer Science

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: diamond

Funder: NOVA Laboratory for Computer Science and Informatics

Award: G1113003032