Conflict, consistency and truth-dependencies in graph representations of answer set logic programs

In this paper, we propose a formalization of the features that a graph representation of logic programs under the answers set semantics should in our opinion exhibit in order to be a satisfactory and useful representation formalism. We introduce a concept of isomorphism (or structural equivalence) between a program and its corresponding graph. We argue that isomorphic representations can be a good software engineering tool for understanding program behavior, for checking consistency, for being able to create, debug and combine good programs, and for developing program analysis techniques. © 2012 Springer-Verlag.