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Recording and checking HOL proofs

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Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 971))

Abstract

Formal proofs generated by mechanised theorem proving systems may consist of a large number of inferences. As these theorem proving systems are usually very complex, it is extremely difficult if not impossible to formally verify them. This calls for an independent means of ensuring the consistency of mechanically generated proofs. This paper describes a method of recording HOL proofs in terms of a sequence of applications of inference rules. The recorded proofs can then be checked by an independent proof checker. Also described in this paper is an efficient proof checker which is able to check a practical proof consisting of thousands of inference steps.

The work described in this paper was carried out by the author while he was in the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory supported by a grant from SERC (No. GR/G223654)

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E. Thomas Schubert Philip J. Windley James Alves-Foss

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© 1995 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Wong, W. (1995). Recording and checking HOL proofs. In: Thomas Schubert, E., Windley, P.J., Alves-Foss, J. (eds) Higher Order Logic Theorem Proving and Its Applications. TPHOLs 1995. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 971. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-60275-5_76

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-60275-5_76

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-60275-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-44784-9

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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