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Tactic-based theorem proving and knowledge-based forward chaining: An experiment with Nuprl and Ontic

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Automated Deduction—CADE-11 (CADE 1992)

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Abstract

We explore a new approach to interactive theorem proving which combines a knowledge-based notion of obvious reasoning with a tactic-based notion of obvious reasoning. We study the interplay of two particular systems and apply our approach to a proof of the Fundamental Theorem of Arithmetic. We achieve both shorter and more robust proofs. It is our opinion that the kind of control information contained in interactive proofs is a more important issue than their mere size. We analyze our proof scripts in terms of the control information they contain and suggest that stronger knowledge-based notions of obviousness and declarative representations of tactics are needed to further reduce low-level control information.

The author would like to acknowledge support for this work under NSF grant CCR-9108062 and ONR grant N000014-88K-0409.

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Deepak Kapur

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© 1992 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Chen, W.Z. (1992). Tactic-based theorem proving and knowledge-based forward chaining: An experiment with Nuprl and Ontic. In: Kapur, D. (eds) Automated Deduction—CADE-11. CADE 1992. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 607. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-55602-8_191

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-55602-8_191

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