Thanks for the HOL lesson, Michael, and clarifying about theorem-proving!  Can 
you give me some advice on how to read your 45 page Logic manual?  I need to 
understand why 

   x : point [means] 
   "x is an element of the set point"  (the reading we can derive using the 
semantics)

Your Logic manual looks perfectly rigorous but it has real exposition problems 
for mathematicians like me.  Once I understand it, I'll try to make some 
suggestions on how to improve the exposition.  Perhaps it's written for people 
who already know everything that I'm struggling with.

   Who wouldn't rather be doing deep stuff?

I'd be happy to work on software verification, even it's "tedious in the 
computer, and unimaginably tedious with pen and paper".  Right now I don't have 
the skill, and my next step is to learn procedural proofs.  Let's try to settle 
this miz3 biz, and my first step is:

Josef, my conjecture was wrong, and I regret my disparaging remarks about Mizar 
monkeying around with timeout numbers.  Piotr Rudnickii's article Obvious 
Inferences explains very interesting and sensible FOL, and his Herbrand stuff 
is discussed in John's book.  But my larger points (or Michael's) still hold, 
as Piotr explains:

PR> In defining the class of obvious inferences there is a danger of
PR> introducing a discrepancy between the user's sense of an obvious
PR> inference and what the proof-checker is able to accept.

Right, no FOL can't define what humans mean by obvious, so if Mizar's Herbrand 
obvious inference stuff actually captures our meaning of obvious, we're hitting 
Michael's sweet spot, and thinking Mizar always captures obvious our meaning of 
obvious is an illusion.

PR> Firstly, the goal is to force students to write proofs in detail,
PR> thus not all correct inferences have to be accepted.

I am against this goal, and John has several times posted it is not his goal, 
most strongly today:

JH> Generally speaking, I'd say that "the automation is too powerful"
JH> is a problem we'd love [miz3] to have!

Michael, the issue with Freek and miz3 is whether Freek intended to force 
students to write proofs in detail by setting timeout = 1 in miz3.  I believe 
(not sure) that he said that was not his intention.  What we know for sure is 
that Freek 
1) often explains that one should set the timeout higher, even to -1 (no 
timeout) 
2) explained the reason for timeout = 1: to limit user frustration when miz3 is 
trying very hard to prove something that's obviously wrong.  By setting timeout 
= 1, you get immediate feedback.
What I said, and Freek didn't necessarily agree with, is that this immediate 
feedback is particularly important for new users, and I feel quite comfortable 
with timeout = 50.  I think Freek still often uses timeout = 1 for immediate 
feedback.   
All this makes for a good comparison between Freek and Heineken, which installs 
beer bottle tops to prevent stores and consumers from spilling the beer, not to 
force users to drink less.  

   And really, why do we care?  

That's easy!  I want a smart HOL guy like you to think about how we can make 
miz3 (holby, actually) more powerful.  I'm having a bad interaction, I hazily 
conjecture, between the FOL that MESON is good at and the set theory in my 
paper.  For that, you must understand that intentional weakness isn't a miz3 
goal, for then you efforts would be wasted.  

-- 
Best,
Bill 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Live Security Virtual Conference
Exclusive live event will cover all the ways today's security and 
threat landscape has changed and how IT managers can respond. Discussions 
will include endpoint security, mobile security and the latest in malware 
threats. http://www.accelacomm.com/jaw/sfrnl04242012/114/50122263/
_______________________________________________
hol-info mailing list
[email protected]
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/hol-info

Reply via email to