Cross-Translating Answer Set Programs Using the ASPTOOLS Collection

Abstract

One viable way of implementing answer set programming (ASP) is to compile (ground) logic programs into other formalisms and to use existing solver technology to compute answer sets. In this article, we present an overview of translators used for such compilations, targeting at other solving paradigms such as Boolean satisfiability checking, satisfiability modulo theories, and mixed integer programming. Borrowing ideas from modern compiler design, such translators can be systematically developed in stages so that the details of the target formalism can be incorporated at the last step of the translation. In this way, the resulting translators realize a cross-compilation framework for answer set programs, coined as cross-translation in this article.