Academic Press The Automation of Reasoning: An Experimenter's Notebook with Otter Tutorial

This landmark title is the only one of its kind to offer research problems in the field along with guidance in using and implementing what has been called the most powerful general-purpose program for automated reasoning available: Bill McCune's OTTER. The remarkable automated reasoning program is included (on diskette) with the text to allow hands-on understanding of the author's imparted knowledge. Also included within the text are detailed guidelines for using the program, which can be of great assistance in deductive reasoning. The text covers, in depth, how research is actually conducted using an automated reasoning program and based on the author's thirty years of work in the field, and also offers new results in mathematics and in logic that have never before appeared in print. Key Features * Includes floppy disk with input files, a user's guide, and the latest version of OTTER software for automated reasoning: conduct your own automated reasoning experiments immediately! * Features a new strategy, called the resonance strategy, that enables a reasoning program to use steps of one proof to guide its attempt to complete a second proof, often with outstanding success * Presents material in the form of an experimenter's notebook, with substantial commentary about choices for using an automated reasoning program effectively * Describes a methodology for finding elegant, shorter proofs-important in applications such as circuit design * Introduces the hot list strategy which, by focusing on selected information, dramatically enhances the ability of a reasoning program to draw vital conclusions quickly