# A Refinement Calculus for Logic Programs

• Published 2002 in TPLP

#### Abstract

Existing refinement calculi provide frameworks for the stepwise development of imperative programs from specifications. This paper presents a refinement calculus for deriving logic programs. The calculus contains a wide-spectrum logic programming language, including executable constructs such as sequential conjunction, disjunction, and existential quantification, as well as specification constructs such as general predicates, assumptions and universal quantification. A declarative semantics is defined for this wide-spectrum language based on executions. Executions are partial functions from states to states, where a state is represented as a set of bindings. The semantics is used to define the meaning of programs and specifications, including parameters and recursion. To complete the calculus, a notion of correctness-preserving refinement over programs in the wide-spectrum language is defined and refinement laws for developing programs are introduced. The refinement calculus is illustrated using example derivations and prototype tool support is discussed.

DOI: 10.1017/S1471068402001448

### Cite this paper

@article{Hayes2002ARC, title={A Refinement Calculus for Logic Programs}, author={Ian J. Hayes and Robert Colvin and David Hemer and Paul A. Strooper and Ray Nickson}, journal={TPLP}, year={2002}, volume={2}, pages={425-460} }