Partial evaluation in Constraint Logic Programming

Abstract

Partial evaluation is an optimization technique which aims at specializing general programs in order to improve their efficiency. Within the field of Logic Programming the technique is known as partial deduction. In this paper we generalize the concept of partial deduction so that it applies to the framework of Constraint Logic Programming (CLP). We also lift the main theoretical results on partial evaluation in Logic Programming to the CLP case, thus providing a formal foundation for partial evaluation of constraint logic programs.