An Empirical Study of Partial Deduction for miniKanren

TL;DR

This paper investigates conjunctive partial deduction for miniKanren, addressing unique challenges and proposing a novel approach that successfully specializes relational interpreters, paving the way for optimized miniKanren programs.

Contribution

It introduces a new specialization technique combining partial deduction and supercompilation tailored for miniKanren's unique features.

Findings

Successful specialization of relational interpreters

Identification of issues caused by miniKanren peculiarities

First step towards an optimization framework for miniKanren

Abstract

We study conjunctive partial deduction, an advanced specialization technique aimed at improving the performance of logic programs, in the context of relational programming language miniKanren. We identify a number of issues, caused by miniKanren peculiarities, and describe a novel approach to specialization based on partial deduction and supercompilation. The results of the evaluation demonstrate successful specialization of relational interpreters. Although the project is at an early stage, we consider it as the first step towards an efficient optimization framework for miniKanren.