A Socratic and Computational Analysis of the List Prolog Interpreter- A Symbolic Execution Model in Pure Prolog

This paper examines the “List Prolog Interpreter” repository, a symbolic execution system implemented in Prolog that interprets logic programs via list-based representations of predicates and control flow. It aims to model Prolog computation explicitly, including recursion, backtracking, and predicate evaluation, using interpreters such as listprologinterpreter1listrecursion4 pl and listprologinterpreter3preds5 pl. The primary contribution is a structured reconstruction of the interpreter’s computational model, along with a Socratic critique of its correctness, complexity, and architectural design. The analysis shows that the interpreter provides a transparent, extensible framework for understanding Prolog semantics, but suffers from scalability limitations and lacks formal guarantees. These findings indicate that list-based interpreters offer valuable pedagogical and experimental tools, though further optimisation is needed for practical deployment.