Major Section: ACL2 Documentation
A view of ACL2 proofs may be obtained by way of ``proof tree displays.'' The
emacs environment is easily customized to provide window-based proof tree
displays that assist in traversing and making sense of the proof transcript;
see proof-tree-emacs. Proof tree displays may be turned on with the command
:start-proof-tree and may be turned off with the command
:stop-proof-tree; see start-proof-tree and see stop-proof-tree.
( DEFTHM PLUS-TREE-DEL ...) ;currently proving PLUS-TREE-DEL
1 Goal preprocess ;"Goal" creates 1 subgoal by preprocessing
2 | Goal' simp ;"Goal'" creates 2 subgoals by simplification
c 0 | | Subgoal 2 PUSH *1 ;"Subgoal 2" pushes "*1" for INDUCT
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ;first pass thru waterfall completed
c 6 *1 INDUCT ;Proof by induction of "*1" has
| <5 more subgoals> ; created 6 top-level subgoals. At
; this point, one of those 6 has been
; proved, and 5 remain to be proved.
; We are currently working on the
; first of those 5 remaining goals.
See proof-tree-examples for many examples that contain proof tree displays.
But first, we summarize the kinds of lines that may appear in a proof tree
display. The simplest form of a proof tree display is a header showing the
current event, followed by list of lines, each having one of the following
forms.
n <goal> <process> ...
Says that the indicated goal created n subgoals using the indicated
process. Here ``...'' refers to possible additional information.
c n <goal> <process> ...As above, but calls attention to the fact that this goal is a ``checkpoint'' in the sense that it may be of particular interest. Some displays may overwrite ``c'' with ``>'' to indicate the current checkpoint being shown in the proof transcript.
| <goal> ...
| | <k subgoals>
Indicates that the goal just above this line, which is pointed to by the
rightmost vertical bar (``|''), has k subgoals, none of which have yet
been processed.
| <goal> ...
| | <k more subgoals>
As above, except that some subgoals have already been processed.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++Separates successive passes through the ``waterfall''. Thus, this ``fencepost'' mark indicates the start of a new proof by induction or of a new forcing round.
See proof-tree-examples for detailed examples. To learn how to turn off
proof tree displays or to turn them back on again, see stop-proof-tree and
see start-proof-tree, respectively. See checkpoint-forced-goals to learn how
to mark goals as checkpoints that force the creation of goals in forcing
rounds. Finally, see proof-tree-details for some points not covered
elsewhere.