Abstract

In the following we describe the basic ideas underlying\Omega\Gamma mkrp, an interactive proof development environment [6]. The requirements for this system were derived from our experiences in proving an interrelated collection of theorems of a typical textbook on semi-groups and automata [3] with the first-order theorem prover mkrp [11]. An important finding was that although current automated theorem provers have evidently reached the power to solve non-trivial problems, they do not provide sufficient assistance for proving the theorems contained in such a textbook. On account of this, we believe that significantly more support for proof development can be provided by a system with the following two features: -- The system must provide a comfortable human-oriented problem-solving environment. In particular, a human user should be able to specify the problem to be solved in a natural way and communicate on proof

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