:meta rule (a hand-written simplifier)
Major Section: RULE-CLASSES
See rule-classes for a general discussion of rule classes and
how they are used to build rules from formulas. Meta rules extend
the ACL2 simplifier with hand-written code to transform certain
terms to equivalent ones. To add a meta rule, the :corollary
formula must establish that the hand-written ``metafunction''
preserves the meaning of the transformed term.
Example :corollary formulas from which :meta rules might be
built are:
Examples:
(equal (evl x a) ; Modify the rewriter to use fn to
(evl (fn x) a)) ; transform terms. The :trigger-fns
; of the :meta rule-class specify
; the top-most function symbols of
; those x that are candidates for
; this transformation.
(implies (and (pseudo-termp x) ; As above, but this illustrates
(alistp a)) ; that without loss of generality we
(equal (evl x a) ; may restrict x to be shaped like a
(evl (fn x) a))) ; term and a to be an alist.
(implies (and (pseudo-termp x) ; As above (with or without the
(alistp a) ; hypotheses on x and a) with the
(evl (hyp-fn x) a)) ; additional restriction that the
(equal (evl x a) ; meaning of (hyp-fn x) is true in
(evl (fn x) a))) ; the current context. That is, the
; applicability of the transforma-
; tion may be dependent upon some
; computed hypotheses.
A non-nil list of function symbols must be supplied as the value
of the :trigger-fns field in a :meta rule class object.
General Forms:
(implies (and (pseudo-termp x) ; this hyp is optional
(alistp a) ; this hyp is optional
(ev (hyp-fn x ...) a)) ; this hyp is optional
(equiv (ev x a)
(ev (fn x ...) a)))
where equiv is a known equivalence relation, x and
a are distinct variable names, and ev is an evaluator
function (see below), and fn is a function symbol, as is
hyp-fn when provided. The arguments to fn and hyp-fn
should be identical. In the most common case, both take a single
argument, x, which denotes the term to be simplified. If fn
and/or hyp-fn are guarded, their guards should be
(implied by) pseudo-termp. See pseudo-termp. We say the
theorem above is a ``metatheorem'' or ``metalemma'' and fn is a
``metafunction'', and hyp-fn is a ``hypothesis metafunction''.
If ``...'' is empty, i.e., the metafunctions take just one argument,
we say they are ``vanilla flavored.'' If ``...'' is non-empty,
we say the metafunctions are ``extended.'' Extended
metafunctions can access state and context sensitive information
to compute their results, within certain limits. We discuss vanilla
metafunctions here and recommend a thorough understanding of them
before proceeding (at which time
see extended-metafunctions).
We defer discussion of the case in which there is a hypothesis metafunction and for now address the case in which the other two hypotheses are present.
In the discussion below, we refer to the argument, x, of fn
and hyp-fn as a ``term.'' When these metafunctions are executed
by the simplifier, they will be applied to (the quotations of)
terms. But during the proof of the metatheorem itself, x may not
be the quotation of a term. If the pseudo-termp hypothesis is
omitted, x may be any object. Even with the pseudo-termp
hypothesis, x may merely ``look like a term'' but use
non-function symbols or function symbols of incorrect arity. In any
case, the metatheorem is stronger than necessary to allow us to
apply the metafunctions to terms, as we do in the discussion below.
We return later to the question of proving the metatheorem.
Suppose the general form of the metatheorem above is proved with the
pseudo-termp and alistp hypotheses. Then when the simplifier
encounters a term, (h t1 ... tn), that begins with a function
symbol, h, listed in :trigger-fns, it applies the
metafunction, fn, to the quotation of the term, i.e., it
evaluates (fn '(h t1 ... tn)) to obtain some result, which can be
written as 'val. If 'val is different from '(h t1 ... tn)
and val is a term, then (h t1 ... tn) is replaced by val,
which is then passed along for further rewriting. Because the
metatheorem establishes the correctness of fn for all terms (even
non-terms!), there is no restriction on which function symbols are
listed in the :trigger-fns. Generally, of course, they should be
the symbols that head up the terms simplified by the metafunction
fn. See term-table for how one obtains some assistance
towards guaranteeing that val is indeed a term.
The ``evaluator'' function, ev, is a function that can evaluate a
certain class of expressions, namely, all of those composed of
variables, constants, and applications of a fixed, finite set of
function symbols, g1, ..., gk. Generally speaking, the set of
function symbols handled by ev is chosen to be exactly the
function symbols recognized and manipulated by the metafunctions
being introduced. For example, if fn manipulates expressions in
which 'equal and 'binary-append occur as function
symbols, then ev is generally specified to handle equal and
binary-append. The actual requirements on ev become clear
when the metatheorem is proved. The standard way to introduce an
evaluator is to use the ACL2 macro defevaluator, though this is
not strictly necessary. See defevaluator for details.
Why are we justified in using metafunctions this way? Suppose
(fn 'term1) is 'term2. What justifies replacing term1 by
term2? The first step is to assert that term1 is
(ev 'term1 a), where a is an alist that maps 'var to
var, for each variable var in term1. This step is
incorrect, because 'term1 may contain function symbols other than
the ones, g1, ..., gk, that ev knows how to handle. But we
can grow ev to a ``larger'' evaluator, ev*, an evaluator for
all of the symbols that occur in term1 or term2. We can prove
that ev* satisfies the constraints on ev. Hence, the
metatheorem holds for ev* in place of ev, by functional
instantiation. We can then carry out the proof of the
equivalence of term1 and term2 as follows: Fix a to be
an alist that maps the quotations of the variables of term1 and
term2 to themselves. Then,
term1 = (ev* 'term1 a) ; (1) by construction of ev* and a
= (ev* (fn 'term1) a) ; (2) by the metatheorem for ev*
= (ev* 'term2 a) ; (3) by evaluation of fn
= term2 ; (4) by construction of ev* and a
Note that in line (2) above, where we appeal to the (functional
instantiation of the) metatheorem, we can relieve its (optional)
pseudo-termp and alistp hypotheses by appealing to the facts
that term1 is a term and a is an alist by construction.
Finally, we turn to the second case, in which there is a hypothesis
metafunction. In that case, consider as before what happens when
the simplifier encounters a term, (h t1 ... tn), where h is
listed in :trigger-fns. This time, after it applies fn to
'(h t1 ... tn) to obtain the quotation of some new term, 'val,
it then applies the hypothesis metafunction, hyp-fn. That is, it
evaluates (hyp-fn '(h t1 ... tn)) to obtain some result, which
can be written as 'hyp-val. If hyp-val is not in fact a term,
the metafunction is not used. Provided hyp-val is a term, the
simplifier attempts to establish (by conventional backchaining) that
this term is non-nil in the current context. If this attempt
fails, then the meta rule is not applied. Otherwise, (h t1...tn)
is replaced by val as in the previous case (where there was no
hypothesis metafunction).
Why is it justified to make this extension to the case of hypothesis metafunctions? First, note that the rule
(implies (and (pseudo-termp x)
(alistp a)
(ev (hyp-fn x) a))
(equal (ev x a)
(ev (fn x) a)))
is logically equivalent to the rule
(implies (and (pseudo-termp x)
(alistp a))
(equal (ev x a)
(ev (new-fn x) a)))
where (new-fn x) is defined to be
(list 'if (hyp-fn x) (fn x) x). (If we're careful, we realize
that this argument depends on making an extension of ev to an
evaluator ev* that handles if and the functions manipulated by
hyp-fn.) If we write 'term for the quotation of the present
term, and if (hyp-fn 'term) and (fn 'term) are both terms, say
hyp1 and term1, then by the previous argument we know it is
sound to rewrite term to (if hyp1 term1 term). But since we have
established in the current context that hyp1 is non-nil, we
may simplify (if hyp1 term1 term) to term1, as desired.
We now discuss the role of the pseudo-termp hypothesis.
(Pseudo-termp x) checks that x has the shape of a term.
Roughly speaking, it ensures that x is a symbol, a quoted
constant, or a true list consisting of a lambda expression or
symbol followed by some pseudo-terms. Among the properties of terms
not checked by pseudo-termp are that variable symbols never begin
with ampersand, lambda expressions are closed, and function
symbols are applied to the correct number of arguments.
See pseudo-termp.
There are two possible roles for pseudo-termp in the development
of a metatheorem: it may be used as the guard of the
metafunction and/or hypothesis metafunction and it may be used as a
hypothesis of the metatheorem. Generally speaking, the
pseudo-termp hypothesis is included in a metatheorem only if it
makes it easier to prove. The choice is yours. (An extreme example
of this is when the metatheorem is invalid without the hypothesis!)
We therefore address ourselves the question: should a metafunction
have a pseudo-termp guard? A pseudo-termp guard for
a metafunction, in connection with other considerations described
below, improves the efficiency with which the metafunction is used
by the simplifier.
To make a metafunction maximally efficient you should (a) provide it
with a pseudo-termp guard and exploit the guard when
possible in coding the body of the function
(see guards-and-evaluation, especially the section on
efficiency issues), (b) verify the guards of the metafunction
(see verify-guards), and (c) compile the metafunction
(see comp). When these three steps have been taken the simplifier
can evaluate (fn 'term1) by running the compiled ``primary code''
(see guards-and-evaluation) for fn directly in Common Lisp.
Before discussing efficiency issues further, let us review for a
moment the general case in which we wish to evaluate (fn `obj)
for some :logic function. We must first ask whether the
guards of fn have been verified. If not, we must evaluate
fn by executing its logic definition. This effectively checks
the guards of every subroutine and so can be slow. If, on the
other hand, the guards of fn have been verified, then we can
run the primary code for fn, provided 'obj satisfies the
guard of fn. So we must next evaluate the guard of
fn on 'obj. If the guard is met, then we run the primary
code for fn, otherwise we run the logic code.
Now in the case of a metafunction for which the three steps above
have been followed, we know the guard is (implied by)
pseudo-termp and that it has been verified. Furthermore, we know
without checking that the guard is met (because term1 is a
term and hence 'term1 is a pseudo-termp). Hence, we can use
the compiled primary code directly.
We strongly recommend that you compile your metafunctions, as well
as all their subroutines. Guard verification is also recommended.