Non-transformational Termination Analysis of Logic Programs, Based on General Term-ordering Non-transformational Termination Analysis of Logic Programs, Based on General Term-ordering

We present a new approach to termination analysis of logic programs. The essence of the approach is that we make use of general term-orderings (instead of level mappings), like it is done in trans-formational approaches to logic program termination analysis, but that we apply these orderings directly to the logic program and not to the term-rewrite system obtained through some transformation. We deene a variant of acceptability, based on general term-orderings, and show how it is equivalent to LD-termination for well-moded, simply moded programs. We develop a demand driven, constraint-based approach to verify this acceptability-variant. The advantage of the approach over standard acceptability is that in some cases, where complex level mappings are needed, fairly simple term-orderings may be easily generated. The advantage over transformational approaches is that it avoids the transformation step all together. Abstract. We present a new approach to termination analysis of logic programs. The essence of the approach is that we make use of general term-orderings (instead of level mappings), like it is done in transform-ational approaches to logic program termination analysis, but that we apply these orderings directly to the logic program and not to the term-rewrite system obtained through some transformation. We deene a variant of acceptability, based on general term-orderings, and show how it is equivalent to LD-termination for well-moded, simply moded programs. We develop a demand driven, constraint-based approach to verify this acceptability-variant. The advantage of the approach over standard acceptability is that in some cases, where complex level mappings are needed, fairly simple term-orderings may be easily generated. The advantage over transformational approaches is that it avoids the transformation step all together.