  Input languages of answer set solvers are based on the mathematically simple
concept of a stable model. But many useful constructs available in these
languages, including local variables, conditional literals, and aggregates,
cannot be easily explained in terms of stable models in the sense of the
original definition of this concept and its straightforward generalizations.
Manuals written by designers of answer set solvers usually explain such
constructs using examples and informal comments that appeal to the user's
intuition, without references to any precise semantics. We propose to approach
the problem of defining the semantics of gringo programs by translating them
into the language of infinitary propositional formulas. This semantics allows
us to study equivalent transformations of gringo programs using natural
deduction in infinitary propositional logic.
