Managing Proof Documents for Asynchronous Processing

  • Authors:
  • Holger Gast

  • Affiliations:
  • Wilhelm-Schickard-Institut für Informatik, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany

  • Venue:
  • Electronic Notes in Theoretical Computer Science (ENTCS)
  • Year:
  • 2009

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Abstract

Asynchronous proof processing is a recent approach at improving the usability and performance of interactive theorem provers. It builds on a simple metaphor: the user edits a proof document while the prover checks its consistency in the background without explicit requests from the user. This paper presents a software architecture for asynchronous proof processing. Its foundation is a novel state model for commands that synchronizes the possibly parallel accesses of the user interface and prover. The state model is complemented by a communication protocol that places minimal requirements on the prover. The model also allows asynchronous processing to be emulated by existing linear-processing proof engines, such that the migration to the new communication protocol is simplified. A prototype implementation that works with the current development version of Isabelle is presented.