VERIFYING THE UNIFICATION ALGORITHM IN LCF


Type
Article
Change log
Authors
PAULSON, LC 
Abstract

Manna and Waldinger's theory of substitutions and unification has been verified using the Cambridge LCF theorem prover. A proof of the monotonicity of substitution is presented in detail, as an example of interaction with LCF. Translating the theory into LCF's domain-theoretic logic is largely straightforward. Well-founded induction on a complex ordering is translated into nested structural inductions. Correctness of unification is expressed using predicates for such properties as idempotence and most-generality. The verification is presented as a series of lemmas. The LCF proofs are compared with the original ones, and with other approaches. It appears difficult to find a logic that is both simple and flexible, especially for proving termination.

Description
Keywords
cs.LO, cs.LO, D.2.4; F.3.1; F.4.1
Journal Title
SCI COMPUT PROGRAM
Conference Name
Journal ISSN
0167-6423
Volume Title
5
Publisher
Elsevier BV