English

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

Logic in Computer Science 2018-09-14 v1

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.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1809.04772,
  title  = {A Simple Functional Presentation and an Inductive Correctness Proof of the Horn Algorithm},
  author = {António Ravara},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1809.04772},
  year   = {2018}
}

Comments

In Proceedings HCVS 2018, arXiv:1809.04554

R2 v1 2026-06-23T04:04:51.156Z