The Interaction Between Truth Maintenance, Equality, and Pattern-Directed Invocation: Issues of Completeness and Efficiency

Abstract

We have implemented a reasoning system, called BREAD, which includes truth maintenance, equality, and pattern-directed invocation. This paper reports on the solution of two technical problems arising out of the interaction between these mechanisms. The first result is an algorithm which ensures the completeness of pattern-directed invocation with respect to equality. The second result is an algorithm which reduces a class of redundant proofs.