TTT2 with Termination Templates for Teaching

TL;DR

This paper introduces termination templates for the TTT2 tool, enabling automated verification of specific termination proofs by restricting parameters, which simplifies correctness checks for educational and practical purposes.

Contribution

It presents a novel template mechanism for TTT2 that allows precise restriction of parameters to verify specific termination proofs efficiently.

Findings

Templates enable automated checking of specific termination proofs.

Restricting parameters simplifies proof verification.

The approach improves correctness assurance in educational contexts.

Abstract

On the one hand, checking specific termination proofs by hand, say using a particular collection of matrix interpretations, can be an arduous and error-prone task. On the other hand, automation of such checks would save time and help to establish correctness of exam solutions, examples in lecture notes etc. To this end, we introduce a template mechanism for the termination tool TTT2 that allows us to restrict parameters of certain termination methods. In the extreme, when all parameters are fixed, such restrictions result in checks for specific proofs.