Abstract
A top-down method is presented for compiling queries in unstratified propositional disjunctive deductive databases under the disjunctive well-founded semantics. Compilation entails the construction of a set of compilation trees, and the run-time processing of the compiled query then amounts to checking that some such tree can be extended within the extensional database to yield a tree that encapsulates a proof of the original query. Issues surrounding the extension of our techniques to the first order level are discussed.