A VDM approach to continuation-based semantics of Prolog

Abstract

VDM is short for Vienna Development Method which was developed in the early 1960's in the IBM Vienna Laboratory.  VDM was used in language definition and compiler design. It was then extended to include aspects of large project designs. We use VDM as a semantic tool to discuss the continuation semantics of Prolog. A continuation represents the dynamic effect of the remainder of a program. Based on the semantic functions, a metalevel interpreter is constructed showing the result of our work.