*************************************** DEPRECATED: Interactive Theorem Proving *************************************** .. warning:: The interactive theorem-proving interface documented here has been deprecated in favor of :ref:`elaborator-reflection`. Idris also supports interactive theorem proving via tactics. This is generally not recommended to be used directly, but rather used as a mechanism for building proof automation which is beyond the scope of this tutorial. In this section, we briefly discus tactics. One way to write proofs interactively is to write the general *structure* of the proof, and use the interactive mode to complete the details. Consider the following definition, proved in :ref:`sect-theorems`: .. code-block:: idris plusReduces : (n:Nat) -> plus Z n = n We’ll be constructing the proof by *induction*, so we write the cases for ``Z`` and ``S``, with a recursive call in the ``S`` case giving the inductive hypothesis, and insert *holes* for the rest of the definition: .. code-block:: idris plusReducesZ' : (n:Nat) -> n = plus n Z plusReducesZ' Z = ?plusredZ_Z plusReducesZ' (S k) = let ih = plusReducesZ' k in ?plusredZ_S On running , two global names are created, ``plusredZ_Z`` and ``plusredZ_S``, with no definition. We can use the ``:m`` command at the prompt to find out which holes are still to be solved (or, more precisely, which functions exist but have no definitions), then the ``:t`` command to see their types: .. code-block:: idris *theorems> :m Global holes: [plusredZ_S,plusredZ_Z] .. code-block:: idris *theorems> :t plusredZ_Z plusredZ_Z : Z = plus Z Z *theorems> :t plusredZ_S plusredZ_S : (k : Nat) -> (k = plus k Z) -> S k = plus (S k) Z The ``:p`` command enters interactive proof mode, which can be used to complete the missing definitions. .. code-block:: idris *theorems> :p plusredZ_Z ---------------------------------- (plusredZ_Z) -------- {hole0} : Z = plus Z Z This gives us a list of premises (above the line; there are none here) and the current goal (below the line; named ``{hole0}`` here). At the prompt we can enter tactics to direct the construction of the proof. In this case, we can normalise the goal with the ``compute`` tactic: .. code-block:: idris -plusredZ_Z> compute ---------------------------------- (plusredZ_Z) -------- {hole0} : Z = Z Now we have to prove that ``Z`` equals ``Z``, which is easy to prove by ``Refl``. To apply a function, such as ``Refl``, we use ``refine`` which introduces subgoals for each of the function’s explicit arguments (``Refl`` has none): .. code-block:: idris -plusredZ_Z> refine Refl plusredZ_Z: no more goals Here, we could also have used the ``trivial`` tactic, which tries to refine by ``Refl``, and if that fails, tries to refine by each name in the local context. When a proof is complete, we use the ``qed`` tactic to add the proof to the global context, and remove the hole from the unsolved holes list. This also outputs a trace of the proof: .. code-block:: idris -plusredZ_Z> qed plusredZ_Z = proof compute refine Refl .. code-block:: idris *theorems> :m Global holes: [plusredZ_S] The ``:addproof`` command, at the interactive prompt, will add the proof to the source file (effectively in an appendix). Let us now prove the other required lemma, ``plusredZ_S``: .. code-block:: idris *theorems> :p plusredZ_S ---------------------------------- (plusredZ_S) -------- {hole0} : (k : Nat) -> (k = plus k Z) -> S k = plus (S k) Z In this case, the goal is a function type, using ``k`` (the argument accessible by pattern matching) and ``ih`` — the local variable containing the result of the recursive call. We can introduce these as premises using the ``intro`` tactic twice (or ``intros``, which introduces all arguments as premises). This gives: .. code-block:: idris k : Nat ih : k = plus k Z ---------------------------------- (plusredZ_S) -------- {hole2} : S k = plus (S k) Z Since plus is defined by recursion on its first argument, the term ``plus (S k) Z`` in the goal can be simplified, so we use ``compute``. .. code-block:: idris k : Nat ih : k = plus k Z ---------------------------------- (plusredZ_S) -------- {hole2} : S k = S (plus k Z) We know, from the type of ``ih``, that ``k = plus k Z``, so we would like to use this knowledge to replace ``plus k Z`` in the goal with ``k``. We can achieve this with the ``rewrite`` tactic: .. code-block:: idris -plusredZ_S> rewrite ih k : Nat ih : k = plus k Z ---------------------------------- (plusredZ_S) -------- {hole3} : S k = S k -plusredZ_S> The ``rewrite`` tactic takes an equality proof as an argument, and tries to rewrite the goal using that proof. Here, it results in an equality which is trivially provable: .. code-block:: idris -plusredZ_S> trivial plusredZ_S: no more goals -plusredZ_S> qed plusredZ_S = proof { intros; rewrite ih; trivial; } Again, we can add this proof to the end of our source file using the ``:addproof`` command at the interactive prompt.