A survey on embedding programming logics in a theorem prover

Abstract

Theorem provers were also called 'proof checkers' because that is what they were in the beginning. They have grown powerful, however, capable in many cases to automatically produce complicated proofs. In particular, higher order logic based theorem provers such as HOL and PVS became popular because the logic is well known and very expressive. They are generally considered to be potential platforms to embed a programming logic for the purpose of formal verification. In this paper we investigate a number of most commonly used methods of embedding programming logics in such theorem provers and expose problems we discover. We will also propose an alternative approach : hybrid embedding.