Abstract

Abstract Often the theoretical virtue of simplicity in a theory does not fit with the practical necessities of working with it. We present as a case study an implementation in a generic theorem prover (Isabelle) of a theory (F S0) which at first sight seems to lake all the facilties needed to be practically usable. However, we show that we can use the facilties available in Isabelle to provide all the structuring facilities (modules, abstraction, etc.) that are needed without compromising the simplicity of the original theory in any way, resulting in a thouroghly practical implementation. We further argue that it would be difficult to build a custom implemenation as effective. A great many logics have been proposed as tools in computer science, especially for all sorts of formal, machine checked reasoning. However, if we try to implement these theories in some practical manner, we find that what has been proposed by theoreticians as a practical tool has to be augmented in all sorts

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