Type Inference for Mobile Ambients in Prolog

Abstract

The type system for the ambient calculus M3 [Mobility Types for Mobile Processes in Mobile Ambients, in: Electronic Notes in Theoretical Computer Science, vol. 78, Elsevier, Amsterdam, 2003] is presented in a new form that derives the type of a term with the minimal set of mobility assumptions, and is therefore more amenable than the original form to a translation into a type inference algorithm. From the new formulation a Prolog program is derived, which implements a type inference algorithm for M3 analogous to the one previously specified through formal rules. The implementation exploits in the standard way the peculiarities of the logic programming paradigm, and is therefore, in a sense, more abstract than the original algorithm's specification itself.