Proof tactics

The BNF grammar of tactics is in lambdapi.bnf.

admit

Adds in the environment new symbols (axioms) proving the focused goal.

apply

If t is a term of type Π x₁:T₁, …, Π xₙ:Tₙ,U, then apply t refines the focused typing goal with t _ … _ (with n underscores).

assume

If the focused typing goal is of the form Π x₁ … xₙ,T, then assume h₁ … hₙ replaces it by T with xᵢ replaced by hᵢ.

fail

Always fails. It is useful when developing a proof to stop at some particular point.

generalize

If the focused goal is of the form x₁:A₁, …, xₙ:Aₙ, y₁:B₁, …, yₚ:Bₚ ⊢ ?₁ : U, then generalize y₁ transforms it into the new goal x₁:A₁, …, xₙ:Aₙ ⊢ ?₂ : Π y₁:B₁, …, Π yₚ:Bₚ, U.

have

have x: t generates a new goal for t and then let the user prove the focused typing goal assuming x: t.

induction

If the focused goal is of the form Π x:I …, … with I an inductive type, then induction refines it by applying the induction principle of I.

refine

The tactic refine t tries to instantiate the focused goal by the term t. t can contain references to other goals by using ?n where n is a goal name. t can contain underscores _ or new metavariable names ?n as well. The type-checking and unification algorithms will then try to instantiate some of the metavariables. The new metavariables that cannot be solved are added as new goals.

remove

remove h₁ … hₙ erases the hypotheses h₁ … hₙ from the context of the current goal. The remaining hypotheses and the goal must not depend directly or indirectly on the erased hypotheses. The order of removed hypotheses is not relevant.

set

set x ≔ t extends the current context with x ≔ t.

simplify

With no argument, simplify normalizes the focused goal with respect to β-reduction and the user-defined rewriting rules.

simplify rule off normalizes the focused goal with respect to β-reduction only.

If f is a non-opaque symbol having a definition (introduced with ≔), then simplify f replaces in the focused goal every occurrence of f by its definition.

If f is a symbol identifier having rewriting rules, then simplify f applies these rules bottom-up on every occurrence of f in the focused goal.

solve

Simplify unification goals as much as possible.

why3

The tactic why3 calls a prover (using the why3 platform) to solve the current goal. The user can specify the prover in two ways :

• globally by using the command prover described in Queries

• locally by the tactic why3 "<prover_name>" if the user wants to change the prover inside an interactive mode.

If no prover name is given, then the globally set prover is used (Alt-Ergo by default).

A set of symbols should be defined in order to use the why3 tactic. The user should define those symbols using builtins as follows :

builtin "T"   ≔ … // : U → TYPE
builtin "P"   ≔ … // : Prop → TYPE
builtin "bot" ≔ … // : Prop
builtin "top" ≔ … // : Prop
builtin "not" ≔ … // : Prop → Prop
builtin "and" ≔ … // : Prop → Prop → Prop
builtin "or"  ≔ … // : Prop → Prop → Prop
builtin "imp" ≔ … // : Prop → Prop → Prop
builtin "eqv" ≔ … // : Prop → Prop → Prop
builtin "all" ≔ … // : Π x: U, (T x → Prop) → Prop
builtin "ex"  ≔ … // : Π x: U, (T x → Prop) → Prop

Important note: you must run why3 config detect to make Why3 know about the available provers.