Logic Programs as Compact Denotations

This paper shows how logic programs can be used to implement the transition functions of denotational abstract interpretation. The logic variables express regularity in the abstract behaviour of commands. The technique has been applied to sign, class and escape analysis for object-oriented programs. We show that the time and space costs using logic programs for these analyses are smaller than those using a ground relational representation. Moreover, we show that, in the case of sign analysis, our technique requires less memory and has an efficiency comparable to that of an implementation based on binary decision diagrams.