LCF Examples in HOL

Abstract

The LCF system provides a logic of fixed point theory and is useful to reason about nontermination, recursive definitions and infinite-valued types such as lazy lists. Because of continual presence of bottom elements, it is clumsy for reasoning about finite-valued types and strict functions. The HOL system provides set theory and supports reasoning about finite-valued types and total functions well. In this paper a number of examples are used to demonstrate that an extension of HOL with domain theory combines the benefits of both systems. The examples illustrate reasoning about infinite values and nonterminating functions and show how domain and set theoretic reasoning can be mixed to advantage. An example presents a proof of correctness of a recursive unification algorithm using well-founded induction.