Towards a Set Oriented Calculus for Logic Programming 1

This paper presents SOCLP (Set Oriented Calculus for Logic Programming), a proof calculus for pure Prolog programs with negation. The main difference of this calculus w.r.t. other related approaches is that it deals with the answer set of a goal as a whole, instead of considering each single answer separately. We prove that SOCLP is well defined, in the sense that, at most, one answer set can be derived from a goal, and that the derived set is correct the logical meaning of the program. However the completeness result only holds for a restrictive subset of logic programs. The calculus constitutes a starting point for defining a suitable semantics for deductive database programs.