Deciding Equivalence of Separated Non-nested Attribute Systems in Polynomial Time.

In 1982, Courcelle and Franchi-Zannettacci showed that the equivalence problem of separated non-nested attribute systems can be reduced to the equivalence problem of total deterministic separated basic macro tree transducers. They also gave a procedure for deciding equivalence of transducer in the latter class. Here, we reconsider this equivalence problem. We present a new alternative decision procedure and prove that it runs in polynomial time. We also consider extensions of this result to partial transducers and to the case where parameters of transducers accumulate strings instead of trees.