Efficiency considerations on goal-directed forward chaining for logic programs

This paper presents a linear resolution strategy (GDFC-resolution) for definite logic programs in which goal-directed forward chaining is used to find refutations. GDFC-resolution focuses on relevant facts and rules by means of query independent link clauses. One problem is, that the number of link clauses may be infinite if the program contains recursive rules defined over recursive data structures. We present an approach to generate a more general but finite set of link clauses. We show that GDFC-resolution is sound and complete for definite programs. We discuss the efficiency of GDFC-resolution comparing it with SLD-resolution and present some experimental results.