In logic metaprogramming, programs are not stored as plain textfiles but rather derived from a deductive database. While the benefits of this approach for metaprogramming are obvious, its incompatibility with separate checking limits its applicability to large-scale projects. We analyze the problems inhibiting separate checking and propose a class of logics that reconcile logic metaprogramming and separate checking. We have formalized the resulting module system and have proven the soundness of separate checking. We validate its feasibility by presenting the design and implementation of a specific logic that is able to express many metaprogramming examples from the literature.

Dependencies between program elements need to be modeled from different perspectives reflecting architectural, design, and implementation level decisions. To avoid erosion of the intended structure of the code, it is necessary to explicitly codify these different perspectives on the permitted dependencies and to detect violations continuously and incrementally as software evolves.