Questions tagged [coq]

Coq is a formal proof management system. It is often referred to as a proof assistant.

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46 votes
2 answers
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What are the main differences between Coq and Lean?

Coq and Lean are two of the most common proof assistants out there (but the question of course applies to other proof assistants too). What are the main differences between Coq and Lean? Ideally it ...
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35 votes
3 answers
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What exactly is setoid hell?

One of the only arguments I've heard about why Lean is better than Coq is that you can construct quotients of built-in structures by default. (In Coq, you apparently have to use Setoids instead of ...
24 votes
4 answers
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What are the differences between MLTT and CIC?

In the theory and design of proof assistants based upon dependent types, I feel like there’s a somewhat cultural divide between the "MLTT" world (with Agda as the main representative proof ...
20 votes
1 answer
506 views

What is the state of coinductive types and reasoning in Coq?

Ever since the work by Gimenez for his PhD thesis, Coq has supported positive coinductive types. For example, the type of always-infinite streams containing elements of type ...
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1 answer
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When to use coinductive types?

One could define streams in the following manner ...
16 votes
3 answers
871 views

Well-foundedness: classical equivalence of no infinite descent and accessibility

I have often seen the claim that in a classical setting, well-foundedness of a relation > defined as the absence of an infinite descent ...
16 votes
1 answer
879 views

Why not have `Prop : Set` in Coq?

My understanding of Coq is that Prop : Type_1, Set : Type_1, and then Type_1 : Type_2, ...
15 votes
2 answers
294 views

What are the upsides and downsides of typed vs untyped conversion?

What are the tradeoffs between untyped and type-directed conversion in dependent type theory, and is there any consensus on what's "better"? Background Generally speaking, in dependent type ...
15 votes
1 answer
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How do Coq's bidirectionality hints (`&`) affect type checking?

I have used Coq's bidirectionality hints (placement of & in a call to Arguments) to some effect, mostly by trial and error. ...
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14 votes
3 answers
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How to extract the witness from exists in Coq in function notation/without destructing?

Assuming I have some definition with a forall and an exists like so: Definition fooable A B P := forall a : A, exists b : B, P a b. Then on an intuitive level, I ...
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14 votes
1 answer
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Converting between formulations of reals in Coq

While trying to answer more concretely a question on floating points, I tried proving a simple statement using the Flocq library of Coq. However, I got stuck before really exercising it because I am ...
13 votes
2 answers
278 views

Is eta-equality provable in Coq?

Trying to answer another question, I can't help second guessing myself about whether eta equality is provable in Coq. In particular, can one prove ...
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13 votes
3 answers
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Calculus of (inductive) Constructions: Do inductive definitions increase proof strength?

Question Is CiC stronger than CoC, in terms of proof strength? Context To illustrate the kind of confusion I am in, and what I'd like to learn from the answer, here is part of my inner monologue: If I ...
13 votes
1 answer
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How do I turn off the aggressive auto-indent in Proof General/Coq

I have installed Proof General via Doom Emacs' coq module, keeping most settings as whatever default that module sets. Sometimes the automatic indentation this ...
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11 votes
2 answers
447 views

How does the formal proof of the four color theorem work?

Over a decade ago, Georges Gonthier, gave a formal proof of the four color theorem. I have a mental picture of how the proof works, and I'd like to see if it is correct. The original proof of the ...
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11 votes
1 answer
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What is the role of impredicativity in program extraction?

Is impredicativity useful for program extraction in Coq? For example is there some kind of realizability argument that depends on impredicativity? Of course it doesn't seem to be necessary for program ...
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11 votes
1 answer
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What are the differences between jsCoq and the versions of Coq that can be downloaded?

I found a site where I can use Coq in my browser: jsCoq Interactive Online System. Are there any major differences between the experience I'm getting on this site and the downloadable version(s)?
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11 votes
2 answers
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Proving uniqueness of an instance of an indexed inductive type

Consider the simple indexed inductive type Inductive Single : nat -> Set := | single_O : Single O | single_S {n} : Single n -> Single (S n). Intuitively, I ...
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1 answer
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What did Coq 8.15 change about divmod?

I noticed that Coq 8.15 (possibly 8.14) made some significant changes to divmod. In particular, Nat.divmod_0q0 seems to have been removed and the ...
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11 votes
1 answer
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Naming conventions (letter case, underscores, &c) for Coq

Does Coq have an established convention/style for constructors, variables, terms, &c? An established convention that isn't exceptionless is totally fine. For example, terms should be lowercase ...
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10 votes
2 answers
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How can we formalize a game where each player is a program having access to opponent's code?

How can we define in a proof assistant (eg., Coq) a notion of a 2-player game, where each player is a program that has access to the opponent's source code? Background: In Open Source Game Theory, we ...
10 votes
1 answer
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Is there a Mizar-like sublanguage for Coq?

Isabelle has the frontend Isar which mimics some features of the Mizar system. I'm curious if Coq has anything similar, i.e. an alternative to tactic scripts that's designed to be readable or similar ...
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9 votes
2 answers
416 views

Learning Math Proof via Proof Assistants

I want to learn proof based mathematics and it looks like a proof assistant like Coq and Lean could be a good way to go about verifying my proofs, without needing a PhD on hand to check through all my ...
9 votes
1 answer
560 views

What axioms do I need to search the naturals?

Theorem search {P : nat -> Prop} (dec : forall n, {P n} + {~P n}) : ~~(exists n, P n) -> {n | P n}. Admitted. I don't think this is provable in Coq without ...
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2 answers
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Defining coercion for proof irrelevant equality

Say I would like to define coercion for proof irrelevant equality between types. In Coq I try ...
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9 votes
2 answers
543 views

Is coercion to a higher universe injective?

A type that is a member of a universe can be coerced into a higher universe. Is that coercion injective? That is, if two elements of U1 are equal after being coerced to U2, does that imply they are ...
8 votes
2 answers
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Explanation of Coq math-comp repositories

How are the Coq math-comp account and repositories related? Details One of my side goals is to try to keep the tags on this site meaningful and useful. Today I ran into this question: How to prove ...
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8 votes
3 answers
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How to prove that addition is commutative for conatural numbers in Coq

I have defined the conatural numbers, bisimulation (extensional equality?) and addition as follows, ...
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8 votes
2 answers
170 views

How to prove `forall m n : nat, m == n -> m = n`?

I am learning Coq with ssreflect. Just to understand things, I've proved forall a b : bool, a == b -> a = b but I can't figure out how to prove ...
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2 answers
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Coq: Recursive Smart Constructors and Sigma types, how to avoid axioms

I am using a recursive smart constructor to return a sigma type, which includes the property that the type was constructed in a smart way. This is very basic compared to the smart constructors and ...
8 votes
3 answers
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Has anyone accidentally "proven" a false theorem using what was later found to be a critical bug?

Critical bugs are periodically found in Coq, and I assume in other proof assistants as well. We are still happy to mostly trust the proof assistants, partly because these critical bugs are relatively ...
7 votes
4 answers
156 views

Are there any ergonomic ways to deal with finite types in Coq?

I am trying to work with proofs about fixed-size bitvectors, or a map from a finite type to bool. What I'm finding is that "finite type" is actually ...
7 votes
1 answer
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Tactic unification vs evarconv in Coq

I gather, from practical experience and Zulip hearsay, that Coq has two unification algorithms, known as “tactic unification” and “evarconv”. However, I can't find any documentation on these from a ...
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Why Coq's `Include` is designed to instantiate functor with current interactive defining module?

It is surprising for me to see that Coq can Include a functor and will instantiate it with the current interactive module. Coq Ref Manual: Command Include ...
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0 answers
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What was the first proof assistant with eta equality for records?

The Agda language supports eta equality for (non-(co)inductive) record types: ...
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2 answers
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Why are these two proofs so different?

I was messing around with toy lemmas in Idris and came up with this silly proof. ...
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6 votes
1 answer
245 views

How to replace a function by its body

I have this function: Definition bexp x y := bexp_r x y [true]. And I have this goal: value (bexp [] y) = 0 ^ value y I want ...
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6 votes
2 answers
258 views

Problem proving a binary add function

I'm fairly new to the Coq language and I want to prove a function that does an binary add from numbers represented as a list (least significant bit upfront). I have created this badd function that ...
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6 votes
1 answer
111 views

Does Coq's Module and Functor type-check incrementally?

I am trying to search the following questions online but I failed: When applying a functor (parametrized module), will the contents inside the functor be re-type-checked? Will Coq's command ...
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1 answer
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How to set defaults for implicit arguments when they can't be inferred?

If I had a module declared as follows in file A.v: Section A. Context {𝒳 : Set}. Inductive abt := Abt_leaf (x : 𝒳) | Abt_node. End A. And in another file, B....
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6 votes
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In VSCoq, how to issue an arbitrary Gallina query via the prompt?

I’m currently trying out Visual Studio + VSCoq, having previously used Emacs + Proof General for Coq, and there’s one part of my usual workflow that I haven’t managed to replicate yet. Is there a way ...
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0 answers
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How to write heavily indexed proofs?

I've been playing with hereditary substitution. However, things get very awkward because substitution isn't total unless you index by the environment somehow. In my old approach terms were not indexed ...
5 votes
3 answers
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How do you import part of the standard library in Coq?

How do you import part of the standard library in Coq? How do you import Nat specifically? Why is reporting Nat not required to ...
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5 votes
1 answer
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Formal description of Coq’s termination checker

Coq’s built-in termination checker accepts some rather intricate recursion patterns with functional values in data types, as shown by this example ...
5 votes
2 answers
161 views

Basics of real numbers in mathcomp (Coq)

I'm trying to play around with the Mathematical Components library in Coq but am having trouble writing basic, concrete statements about real numbers. E.g., I'd like to define ...
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3 answers
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Hide the value of a hypothesis introduced by `pose`, show only its type

In proof mode, if I know an expression e of type T, I can write pose foo : T := e to add <...
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2 answers
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How to provide a countType when using mathcomp?

The following snippet can't pass type checking. From mathcomp Require Import choice. Definition exfn (A:countType) := false. (* Fail *) Check exfn nat. Failed with ...
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1 answer
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How to implement first-order relational structures in Coq?

I'm trying to define a first-order relational structure in Coq. I have a way to define a pre-first-order-relational-structure, which is not a standard notion, but seems simple enough. I also have a ...
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5 votes
1 answer
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Unexpected eta expansion in constant definition

Start from this example in section 2.1.14: Polymorphic Universes in Coq's reference maunual (slightly modified): ...
5 votes
1 answer
176 views

How to fold simplified goal?

I have written a Program Fixpoint called generic_debugging_algorithm with a measure, and I have one obligation left to prove. To me the obligation reads like: ...