EVALUATION OF DECLARATIVE N-QUEENS RECURSION - A DEDUCTIVE DATABASE APPROACH

Can we evaluate a logic program declaratively? That is, can a logic pr ogram be evaluated correctly and efficiently, independent of query mod es and rule/predicate ordering, finding a complete set of answers, and terminating properly? the answer could be ''yes'', at least for a goo d subclass of logic programs, based on our investigation and experimen tation using a deductive database approach. In this paper, an n-queens problem, a classical logic program, is used as a running example to d emonstrate the methodology. Our analysis shows that binding analysis a nd constraint exploration are two essential issues in the realization of declarative logic programming. The limitations of our methodology a re also discussed in the paper. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Inc. All rig hts reserved.