Performing Inferences over Recursive Data Bases

The research reported in this paper presents a solution to an open problem which arises in systems that use recursive production rules to represent knowledge. The problem can be stated as follows: "Given a recursive definition, how can we derive an equivalent non-recursive program with well-defined termination conditions". Our solution uses connection graphs to first detect occurrences of recursive definitions and then synthesizes a non-recursive program from such a definition.