Speedup of Logic Programs by Binarization and Partial Deduction

Binary logic programs can be obtained from ordinary logic programs by a binarizing transformation. In most cases, binary programs obtained this way are less efficient than the original programs. (Demoen, 1992) showed an interesting example of a logic program whose computational behaviour was improved when it was transformed to a binary program and then specialized by partial deduction. The class of B-stratifiable logic programs is defined. It is shown that for every B-stratifiable logic program, binarization and subsequent partial deduction produce a binary program which does not contain variables for continuations introduced by binarization. Such programs usually have a better computational behaviour than the original ones. Both binarization and partial deduction can be easily automated. A comparison with other related approaches to program transformation is given.