Abstract

We consider the representable equational theory of binary relations, in a language expressing composition, converse, and lattice operations. By working directly with a presentation of relation expressions as graphs we are able to define a notion of reduction which is confluent and strongly normalizing and induces a notion of computable normal form for terms. This notion of reduction thus leads to a computational interpretation of the representable theory. © 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.