OpenTheory - Package Management for Higher Order Logic Theories

Interactive theorem proving has grown from toy examples to major projects formalizing mathematics and verifying software, and there is now a critical need for theory engineering techniques to support these efforts. This paper introduces the OpenTheory project, which aims to provide an effective package management system for logical theories. The OpenTheory article format allows higher order logic theories to be exported from one theorem prover, compressed by a stand-alone tool, and imported into a different theorem prover. Articles naturally support theory interpretations, which is the mechanism by which theories can be cleanly transferred from one theorem prover context to another, and which also leads to more efficient developments of standard theories.