Thm_cont.RES

Like the basic resolution function IMP_RES_THEN, the resolution tactic RES_THEN performs a single-step resolution of an implication and the assumptions of a goal. RES_THEN differs from IMP_RES_THEN only in that the implications used for resolution are taken from the assumptions of the goal itself, rather than supplied as an argument.

When applied to a goal A ?- g, the tactic RES_THEN ttac uses RES_CANON to obtain a set of implicative theorems in canonical form from the assumptions A of the goal. Each of the resulting theorems (if there are any) will have the form:

   ai |- !x1...xn. ui ==> vi

where ai is one of the assumptions of the goal. Having obtained these implications, RES_THEN then attempts to match each antecedent ui to each assumption aj |- aj in the assumptions A. If the antecedent ui of any implication matches the conclusion aj of any assumption, then an instance of the theorem ai, aj |- vi, called a ‘resolvent’, is obtained by specialization of the variables x1, ..., xn and type instantiation, followed by an application of modus ponens. There may be more than one canonical implication derivable from the assumptions of the goal and each such implication is tried against every assumption, so there may be several resolvents (or, indeed, none).

Tactics are produced using the theorem-tactic ttac from all these resolvents (failures of ttac at this stage are filtered out) and these tactics are then applied in an unspecified sequence to the goal. That is,

   RES_THEN ttac (A ?- g)

has the effect of:

   MAP_EVERY (mapfilter ttac [... ; (ai,aj |- vi) ; ...]) (A ?- g)

where the theorems ai,aj |- vi are all the consequences that can be drawn by a (single) matching modus-ponens inference from the assumptions A and the implications derived using RES_CANON from the assumptions. The sequence in which the theorems ai,aj |- vi are generated and the corresponding tactics applied is unspecified.