Automating the Synthesis of Decision Procedures in a Constructive Metatheory Automating the Synthesis of Decision Procedures in a Constructive Metatheory

universitt a di genova facoltt a di ingegneria dipartimento informatica sistemistica telematica Preprint 0 (1998) ?{? We present an approach to the automatic construction of decision procedures, via a detailed example in propositional logic. The approach adapts the methods of proof-planning and the heuristics for induction to a new domain, that of meta-theoretic procedures. This approach starts by providing an alternative characterisation of validity; the proofs of the correctness and completeness of this characterisation, and the existence of a decision procedure, are then amenable to automation in the way we describe. In this paper we identify a set of principled extensions to the heuristics for induction needed to tackle the proof obligations arising in the new problem domain and discuss their integration within the CL A M-Oyster system.