.TH generalise 1 "September 7, 1994"
.SH NAME
generalise \- generalises all clauses with a given predicate symbol
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B generalise(PredicateName/Arity)?
.SH DESCRIPTION
.B generalise/2
is the basic command for experimenting with
.I Progol.
When issued
.I Progol
does the following:
.RS
.TP
.B Step 1: Select first
.I Progol
selects the first clause with given predicate symbol. This is normally
the first example to be generalised.
.TP
.B Step 2: Most specific clause
for each example selected in Step 1,
.I Progol
constructs the most specific definite clause that implies the example.
.TP
.B Step 3: General to specific reduction
for each most specific clause constructed in Step 2,
.I Progol
searches the subsumption lattice to find a more general clause that
is consistent and has most pseudo-compression. Consistency
is as defined by the noise setting using
.I set(noise,Value).
.TP
.B Step 4: Remove redundant
.I Progol
removes all clauses made redundant by the generalised clause
found in Step 3. This normally includes all examples covered
by this clause.
.TP
.B Step 5: Repeat
.I Progol
repeats the cycle of Steps 1 - 4 until the pool of seed examples
reduces to an empty set.
.SH NOTE
.B generalise/2
does not necessarily produce the most pseudo-compressive
set of clauses for a given example set. 
.SH "SEE ALSO"