What can be learned from failed proofs of non-theorems?

This paper reports an investigation into the link between failed proofs and non-theorems. It seeks to answer the question of whether anything more can be learned from a failed proof attempt than can be discovered from a counter-example. We suggest that the branch of the proof in which failure occu...

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Main Authors: Dennis, Louise Abigail, Nogueira, Pablo
Other Authors: Hurd, Joe
Format: Conference or Workshop Item
Published: Oxford University Computing Laboratory 2005
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/297/
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author Dennis, Louise Abigail
Nogueira, Pablo
author2 Hurd, Joe
author_facet Hurd, Joe
Dennis, Louise Abigail
Nogueira, Pablo
author_sort Dennis, Louise Abigail
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description This paper reports an investigation into the link between failed proofs and non-theorems. It seeks to answer the question of whether anything more can be learned from a failed proof attempt than can be discovered from a counter-example. We suggest that the branch of the proof in which failure occurs can be mapped back to the segments of code that are the culprit, helping to locate the error. This process of tracing provides finer grained isolation of the offending code fragments than is possible from the inspection of counter-examples. We also discuss ideas for how such a process could be automated.
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format Conference or Workshop Item
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institution University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus
institution_category Local University
last_indexed 2025-11-14T18:11:50Z
publishDate 2005
publisher Oxford University Computing Laboratory
recordtype eprints
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spelling nottingham-2972020-05-04T20:30:46Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/297/ What can be learned from failed proofs of non-theorems? Dennis, Louise Abigail Nogueira, Pablo This paper reports an investigation into the link between failed proofs and non-theorems. It seeks to answer the question of whether anything more can be learned from a failed proof attempt than can be discovered from a counter-example. We suggest that the branch of the proof in which failure occurs can be mapped back to the segments of code that are the culprit, helping to locate the error. This process of tracing provides finer grained isolation of the offending code fragments than is possible from the inspection of counter-examples. We also discuss ideas for how such a process could be automated. Oxford University Computing Laboratory Hurd, Joe Smith, Edward Darbari, Ashish 2005 Conference or Workshop Item NonPeerReviewed Dennis, Louise Abigail and Nogueira, Pablo (2005) What can be learned from failed proofs of non-theorems? In: Theorem Proving in Higher Order Logics: Emerging Trends Proceedings, September, Oxford.
spellingShingle Dennis, Louise Abigail
Nogueira, Pablo
What can be learned from failed proofs of non-theorems?
title What can be learned from failed proofs of non-theorems?
title_full What can be learned from failed proofs of non-theorems?
title_fullStr What can be learned from failed proofs of non-theorems?
title_full_unstemmed What can be learned from failed proofs of non-theorems?
title_short What can be learned from failed proofs of non-theorems?
title_sort what can be learned from failed proofs of non-theorems?
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/297/