Isabelle [28, 30] is an interactive theorem prover that supports a variety of logics. It represents rules as propositions (not as functions) and builds proofs by combining rules. These operations constitute a meta-logic (or `logical framework') in which the object-logics are formalized. Isabelle is now based on higher-order logic --- a precise and well-understood foundation. Examples illustrate use of this meta-logic to formalize logics and proofs. Axioms for first-order logic are shown sound and complete. Backwards proof is formalized by meta-reasoning about object-level entailment. Higher-order logic has several practical advantages over other meta-logics. Many proof techniques are known, such as Huet's higher-order unification procedure. Key words: higher-order logic, higher-order unification, Isabelle, LCF, logical frameworks, meta-reasoning, natural deduction Contents 1 History and overview 2 2 The meta-logic M 4 2.1 Syntax of the meta-logic ......................... 4 2.2 ...

The design of a module system for constructing and main- taining large programs is a difficult task that raises a number of theoretical and practical issues. A fundamental issue is the management of the flow of information between program units at compile time via the notion of an interface. Experience has shown that fully opaque interfaces are awkward to use in practice since too much information is hidden, and that fully transparent interfaces lead to excessive interdependencies, creating problems for maintenance and separate compilation. The "sharing" specifications of Standard ML address this issue by allowing the programmer to specify equational relationships between types in separate modules, but are not expressive enough to allow the programmer com- plete control over the propagation of type information be- tween modules.

We present the linear type theory LLF as the forAppeared in the proceedings of the Eleventh Annual IEEE Symposium on Logic in Computer Science --- LICS'96 (E. Clarke editor), pp. 264--275, New Brunswick, NJ, July 27--30 1996. mal basis for a conservative extension of the LF logical framework. LLF combines the expressive power of dependent types with linear logic to permit the natural and concise representation of a whole new class of deductive systems, namely those dealing with state. As an example we encode a version of Mini-ML with references including its type system, its operational semantics, and a proof of type preservation. Another example is the encoding of a sequent calculus for classical linear logic and its cut elimination theorem. LLF can also be given an operational interpretation as a logic programming language under which the representations above can be used for type inference, evaluation and cut-elimination. 1 Introduction A logical framework is a formal system desig...

We present a type-based approach to eliminating array bound checking and list tag checking by conservatively extending Standard ML with a restricted form of dependent types. This enables the programmer to capture more invariants through types while type-checking remains decidable in theory and can still be performed efficiently in practice. We illustrate our approach through concrete examples and present the result of our preliminary experiments which support support the feasibility and effectiveness of our approach. 1 Introduction The absence of run-time array bound checks is an infamous source of fatal errors for programs in languages such as C. Nonetheless, compilers offer the option to omit array bound checks, since they can turn out to be expensive in practice (Chow 1983; Gupta 1994). In statically typed languages such as ML, one would like to provide strong guarantees about the safety of all operations, so array bound checks cannot be omitted in general. The same is true for Ja...

this paper we reconsider the foundations of modal logic, following MartinL of's methodology of distinguishing judgments from propositions [ML85]. We give constructive meaning explanations for necessity (2) and possibility (3). This exercise yields a simple and uniform system of natural deduction for intuitionistic modal logic which does not exhibit anomalies found in other proposals. We also give a new presentation of lax logic [FM97] and find that it is already contained in modal logic, using the decomposition of the lax modality fl A as

Several related typed languages for modular programming and data abstraction have been proposed recently, including Pebble, SOL, and ML modules. We review and compare the basic type-theoretic ideas behind these languages and evaluate how they

Abstract not found

The technique of proof plans, is explained. This technique is used to guide automatic inference in order to avoid a combinatorial explosion. Empirical research is described to test this technique in the domain of theorem proving by mathematical induction. Heuristics, adapted from the work of Boyer and Moore, have been implemented as Prolog programs, called tactics, and used to guide an inductive proof checker, Oyster. These tactics have been partially specified in a meta-logic, and the plan formation program, clam, has been used to reason with these specifications and form plans. These plans are then executed by running their associated tactics and, hence, performing an Oyster proof. Results are presented of the use of this technique on a number of standard theorems from the literature. Searching in the planning space is shown to be considerably cheaper than searching directly in Oyster's search space. The success rate on the standard theorems is high. Keywords Theorem prov...

In this paper we introduce a general class of lazy computation systems and define a natural program equivalence for them. We prove that if an extensionality condition holds of each of the operators of a computation system, then the equivalence relation is a congruence, so that the usual kinds of equality reasoning are valid for it. This condition is a simple syntactic one, and is easy to verify for the various lazy computation systems we have considered so far. We also give conditions under which the equivalence coincides with observational congruence. These results have some important consequences for type theories like those of Martin-Löf and Nuprl.

Abstract not found