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-rw-r--r--dev/doc/api.txt10
-rw-r--r--dev/doc/changes.txt277
-rw-r--r--dev/doc/cic.dtd2
-rw-r--r--dev/doc/debugging.txt4
-rw-r--r--dev/doc/econstr.md129
-rw-r--r--dev/doc/proof-engine.md134
-rw-r--r--dev/doc/style.txt215
7 files changed, 694 insertions, 77 deletions
diff --git a/dev/doc/api.txt b/dev/doc/api.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..5827257b53
--- /dev/null
+++ b/dev/doc/api.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+Recommendations in using the API:
+
+The type of terms: constr (see kernel/constr.ml and kernel/term.ml)
+
+- On type constr, the canonical equality on CIC (up to
+ alpha-conversion and cast removal) is Constr.equal
+- The type constr is abstract, use mkRel, mkSort, etc. to build
+ elements in constr; use "kind_of_term" to analyze the head of a
+ constr; use destRel, destSort, etc. when the head constructor is
+ known
diff --git a/dev/doc/changes.txt b/dev/doc/changes.txt
index 3de938d774..bcda4ff50a 100644
--- a/dev/doc/changes.txt
+++ b/dev/doc/changes.txt
@@ -1,4 +1,281 @@
=========================================
+= CHANGES BETWEEN COQ V8.6 AND COQ V8.7 =
+=========================================
+
+* Ocaml *
+
+Coq is compiled with -safe-string enabled and requires plugins to do
+the same. This means that code using `String` in an imperative way
+will fail to compile now. They should switch to `Bytes.t`
+
+* ML API *
+
+We renamed the following functions:
+
+ Context.Rel.Declaration.fold -> Context.Rel.Declaration.fold_constr
+ Context.Named.Declaration.fold -> Context.Named.Declaration.fold_constr
+ Printer.pr_var_list_decl -> Printer.pr_compacted_decl
+ Printer.pr_var_decl -> Printer.pr_named_decl
+ Nameops.lift_subscript -> Nameops.increment_subscript
+
+We removed the following functions:
+
+ Termops.compact_named_context_reverse ... practical substitute is Termops.compact_named_context
+ Namegen.to_avoid ... equivalent substitute is Names.Id.List.mem
+
+We renamed the following modules:
+
+ Context.ListNamed -> Context.Compacted
+
+The following type aliases where removed
+
+ Context.section_context ... it was just an alias for "Context.Named.t" which is still available
+
+The module Constrarg was merged into Stdarg.
+
+The following types have been moved and modified:
+
+ local_binder -> local_binder_expr
+ glob_binder merged with glob_decl
+
+The following constructors have been renamed:
+
+ LocalRawDef -> CLocalDef
+ LocalRawAssum -> CLocalAssum
+ LocalPattern -> CLocalPattern
+
+In Constrexpr_ops:
+
+ Deprecating abstract_constr_expr in favor of mkCLambdaN, and
+ prod_constr_expr in favor of mkCProdN. Note: the first ones were
+ interpreting "(x y z:_)" as "(x:_) (y:_) (z:_)" while the second
+ ones were preserving the original sharing of the type.
+
+In Nameops:
+
+ The API has been made more uniform. New combinators added in the
+ "Name" space name. Function "out_name" now fails with IsAnonymous
+ rather than with Failure "Nameops.out_name".
+
+Location handling and AST attributes:
+
+ Location handling has been reworked. First, Loc.ghost has been
+ removed in favor of an option type, all objects carrying an optional
+ source code location have been switched to use `Loc.t option`.
+
+ Storage of location information has been also refactored. The main
+ datatypes representing Coq AST (constrexpr, glob_expr) have been
+ switched to a generic "node with attributes" representation `'a
+ CAst.ast`, which is a record of the form:
+
+```ocaml
+type 'a ast = private {
+ v : 'a;
+ loc : Loc.t option;
+ ...
+}
+```
+ consumers of AST nodes are recommended to use accessor-based pattern
+ matching `{ v; loc }` to destruct `ast` object. Creation is done
+ with `CAst.make ?loc obj`, where the attributes are optional. Some
+ convenient combinators are provided in the module. A typical match:
+```
+| CCase(loc, a1) -> CCase(loc, f a1)
+```
+ is now done as:
+```
+| { v = CCase(a1); loc } -> CAst.make ?loc @@ CCase(f a1)
+```
+ or even better, if plan to preserve the attributes you can wrap your
+ top-level function in `CAst.map` to have:
+
+```
+| CCase(a1) -> CCase(f a1)
+```
+
+ This scheme based on records enables easy extensibility of the AST
+ node type without breaking compatibility.
+
+ Not all objects carrying a location have been converted to the
+ generic node representation, some of them may be converted in the
+ future, for some others the abstraction is not just worth it.
+
+ Thus, we still maintain a `'a Loc.located == Loc.t option * a'`,
+ tuple type which should be treated as private datatype (ok to match
+ against, but forbidden to manually build), and it is mandatory to
+ use it for objects that carry a location. This policy has been
+ implemented in the whole code base. Matching a located object hasn't
+ changed, however, `Loc.tag ?loc obj` must be used to build one.
+
+In GOption:
+
+ Support for non-synchronous options has been removed. Now all
+ options are handled as a piece of normal document state, and thus
+ passed to workers, etc... As a consequence, the field
+ `Goptions.optsync` has been removed.
+
+In Coqlib / reference location:
+
+ We have removed from Coqlib functions returning `constr` from
+ names. Now it is only possible to obtain references, that must be
+ processed wrt the particular needs of the client.
+ We have changed in constrintern the functions returnin `constr` as
+ well to return global references instead.
+
+ Users of `coq_constant/gen_constant` can do
+ `Universes.constr_of_global (find_reference dir r)` _however_ note
+ the warnings in the `Universes.constr_of_global` in the
+ documentation. It is very likely that you were previously suffering
+ from problems with polymorphic universes due to using
+ `Coqlib.coq_constant` that used to do this. You must rather use
+ `pf_constr_of_global` in tactics and `Evarutil.new_global` variants
+ when constructing terms in ML (see univpoly.txt for more information).
+
+** Tactic API **
+
+- pf_constr_of_global now returns a tactic instead of taking a continuation.
+ Thus it only generates one instance of the global reference, and it is the
+ caller's responsibility to perform a focus on the goal.
+
+- pf_global, construct_reference, global_reference,
+ global_reference_in_absolute_module now return a global_reference
+ instead of a constr.
+
+- The tclWEAK_PROGRESS and tclNOTSAMEGOAL tacticals were removed. Their usecase
+ was very specific. Use tclPROGRESS instead.
+
+** Ltac API **
+
+Many Ltac specific API has been moved in its own ltac/ folder. Amongst other
+important things:
+
+- Pcoq.Tactic -> Pltac
+- Constrarg.wit_tactic -> Tacarg.wit_tactic
+- Constrarg.wit_ltac -> Tacarg.wit_ltac
+- API below ltac/ that accepted a *_tactic_expr now accept a *_generic_argument
+ instead
+- Some printing functions were moved from Pptactic to Pputils
+- A part of Tacexpr has been moved to Tactypes
+- The TacFun tactic expression constructor now takes a `Name.t list` for the
+ variable list rather than an `Id.t option list`.
+
+The folder itself has been turned into a plugin. This does not change much,
+but because it is a packed plugin, it may wreak havoc for third-party plugins
+depending on any module defined in the ltac/ directory. Namely, even if
+everything looks OK at compile time, a plugin can fail to load at link time
+because it mistakenly looks for a module Foo instead of Ltac_plugin.Foo, with
+an error of the form:
+
+Error: while loading myplugin.cmxs, no implementation available for Foo.
+
+In particular, most EXTEND macros will trigger this problem even if they
+seemingly do not use any Ltac module, as their expansion do.
+
+The solution is simple, and consists in adding a statement "open Ltac_plugin"
+in each file using a Ltac module, before such a module is actually called. An
+alternative solution would be to fully qualify Ltac modules, e.g. turning any
+call to Tacinterp into Ltac_plugin.Tacinterp. Note that this solution does not
+work for EXTEND macros though.
+
+** Additional changes in tactic extensions **
+
+Entry "constr_with_bindings" has been renamed into
+"open_constr_with_bindings". New entry "constr_with_bindings" now
+uses type classes and rejects terms with unresolved holes.
+
+** Error handling **
+
+- All error functions now take an optional parameter `?loc:Loc.t`. For
+ functions that used to carry a suffix `_loc`, such suffix has been
+ dropped.
+
+- `errorlabstrm` and `error` has been removed in favor of `user_err`.
+
+- The header parameter to `user_err` has been made optional.
+
+** Pretty printing **
+
+Some functions have been removed, see pretty printing below for more
+details.
+
+* Pretty Printing and XML protocol *
+
+The type std_cmdpps has been reworked and made the canonical "Coq rich
+document type". This allows for a more uniform handling of printing
+(specially in IDEs). The main consequences are:
+
+ - Richpp has been confined to IDE use. Most of previous uses of the
+ `richpp` type should be replaced now by `Pp.std_cmdpps`. Main API
+ has been updated.
+
+ - The XML protocol will send a new message type of `pp`, which should
+ be rendered client-wise.
+
+ - `Set Printing Width` is deprecated, now width is controlled
+ client-side.
+
+ - `Pp_control` has removed. The new module `Topfmt` implements
+ console control for the toplevel.
+
+ - The impure tag system in Pp has been removed. This also does away
+ with the printer signatures and functors. Now printers tag
+ unconditionally.
+
+ - The following functions have been removed from `Pp`:
+
+ val stras : int * string -> std_ppcmds
+ val tbrk : int * int -> std_ppcmds
+ val tab : unit -> std_ppcmds
+ val pifb : unit -> std_ppcmds
+ val comment : int -> std_ppcmds
+ val comments : ((int * int) * string) list ref
+ val eval_ppcmds : std_ppcmds -> std_ppcmds
+ val is_empty : std_ppcmds -> bool
+ val t : std_ppcmds -> std_ppcmds
+ val hb : int -> std_ppcmds
+ val vb : int -> std_ppcmds
+ val hvb : int -> std_ppcmds
+ val hovb : int -> std_ppcmds
+ val tb : unit -> std_ppcmds
+ val close : unit -> std_ppcmds
+ val tclose : unit -> std_ppcmds
+ val open_tag : Tag.t -> std_ppcmds
+ val close_tag : unit -> std_ppcmds
+ val msg_with : ...
+
+ module Tag
+
+** Stm API **
+
+- We have streamlined the `Stm` API, now `add` and `query` take a
+ `coq_parsable` instead a `string` so clients can have more control
+ over their input stream. As a consequence, their types have been
+ modified.
+
+- The main parsing entry point has also been moved to the
+ `Stm`. Parsing is considered a synchronous operation so it will
+ either succeed or raise an exception.
+
+- `Feedback` is now only emitted for asynchronous operations. As a
+ consequence, it always carries a valid stateid and the type has
+ changed to accommodate that.
+
+- A few unused hooks were removed due to cleanups, no clients known.
+
+** Toplevel and Vernacular API **
+
+- The components related to vernacular interpretation have been moved
+ to their own folder `vernac/` whereas toplevel now contains the
+ proper toplevel shell and compiler.
+
+- Coq's toplevel has been ported to directly use the common `Stm`
+ API. The signature of a few functions has changed as a result.
+
+** XML Protocol **
+
+- The legacy `Interp` call has been turned into a noop.
+
+=========================================
= CHANGES BETWEEN COQ V8.5 AND COQ V8.6 =
=========================================
diff --git a/dev/doc/cic.dtd b/dev/doc/cic.dtd
index f2314e224f..cc33efd483 100644
--- a/dev/doc/cic.dtd
+++ b/dev/doc/cic.dtd
@@ -125,7 +125,7 @@
id ID #REQUIRED
sort %sort; #REQUIRED>
-<!-- The substitutions are ordered by increasing DeBrujin -->
+<!-- The substitutions are ordered by increasing de Bruijn -->
<!-- index. An empty substitution means that that index is -->
<!-- not accessible. -->
<!ELEMENT META (substitution*)>
diff --git a/dev/doc/debugging.txt b/dev/doc/debugging.txt
index f0df2fc371..79cde48849 100644
--- a/dev/doc/debugging.txt
+++ b/dev/doc/debugging.txt
@@ -51,8 +51,8 @@ Debugging from Caml debugger
failure/error/anomaly has been raised
- Alternatively, for an error or an anomaly, add breakpoints in the middle
of each of error* functions or anomaly* functions in lib/util.ml
- - If "source db" fails, recompile printers.cma with
- "make dev/printers.cma" and try again
+ - If "source db" fails, do a "make printers" and try again (it should build
+ top_printers.cmo and the core cma files).
Global gprof-based profiling
============================
diff --git a/dev/doc/econstr.md b/dev/doc/econstr.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..bb17e8fb62
--- /dev/null
+++ b/dev/doc/econstr.md
@@ -0,0 +1,129 @@
+# Evar-insensitive terms (EConstr)
+
+Evar-insensitive terms were introduced in 8.7, following
+[CEP #10](https://github.com/coq/ceps/blob/master/text/010-econstr.md). We will
+not recap the motivations in this document and rather summarize the code changes
+to perform.
+
+## Overview
+
+The essential datastructures are defined in
+[the `EConstr` module](/engine/eConstr.mli) module. It defines
+the tactic counterparts of kernel data structures such as terms
+(`EConstr.constr`), universes (`EConstr.ESorts.t`) and contexts
+(`EConstr.*_context`).
+
+The main difference with kernel-side types is that observing them requires
+an evar-map at hand in order to normalize evars on the fly. The basic primitive
+to observe an `EConstr.t` is the following function:
+```
+val kind : Evd.evar_map -> t -> (t, t, ESorts.t, EInstance.t) Constr.kind_of_term
+(** Same as {!Constr.kind} except that it expands evars and normalizes
+ universes on the fly. *)
+```
+
+Essentially, each time it sees an evar which happens to be defined in the
+provided evar-map, it replaces it with the corresponding body and carries on.
+
+Due to universe unification occuring at the tactic level, the same goes for
+universe instances and sorts. See the `ESort` and `EInstance` modules in
+`EConstr`.
+
+This normalization is critical for the soundness of tactics. Before EConstr, a
+lot of bugs were lurking in the code base, a few still are (most notably in
+meta-based unification) and failure to respect the guidelines thereafter may
+result in nasal demons.
+
+## Transition path
+
+### Types
+
+As a rule of thumb, all functions living at the tactic level should manipulate
+`EConstr.t` instead of `Constr.t`, and similarly for the other data structures.
+
+To ease the transition, the `EConstr` module defines a handful of aliases to
+shadow the type names from the kernel.
+
+It is recommended to perform the following replacement in headers.
+```ocaml
+(** Kernel types. You may remove the two following opens if you want. Beware
+ that [kind_of_term] needs to be in scope if you use [EConstr.kind] so that
+ you may still need to open one of the two. *)
+open Term
+open Constr
+(** Tactic types. Open this after to shadow kernel types. *)
+open EConstr
+```
+
+Note that the `EConstr` module also redefines a `Vars` submodule.
+
+### Evar-map-passing
+
+All functions deconstructing an econstr need to take an evar-map as a parameter.
+Therefore, you need to pass one as an argument virtually everywhere.
+
+In the Coq source code, it is recommended to take the evar-map as a first
+argument called `sigma`, except if the function also takes an environment in
+which case it is passed second. Namely, the two typical instances are:
+```ocaml
+let foo sigma c = mycode
+val foo : Evd.evar_map -> EConstr.t -> Foo.t
+
+let bar env sigma c = mycode
+val bar : Environ.env -> Evd.evar_map -> EConstr.t -> Bar.t
+```
+
+The EConstr API makes the code much more sensitive to evar-maps, because a
+lot of now useless normalizations were removed. Thus one should be cautious of
+**not** dropping the evar-map when it has been updated, and should rather stick
+to a strict state-passing discipline. Unsound primitives like
+`Typing.unsafe_type_of` are also a known source of problems, so you should
+replace them with the corresponding evar-map-returning function and thread it
+properly.
+
+### Functions
+
+Many functions from `Constr` and `Term` are redefined to work on econstr in
+the `EConstr` module, so that it is often enough to perform the `open` as
+described above to replace them. Their type may differ though, because they now
+need access to an evar-map. A lot of econstr-manipulating functions are also
+defined in [`Termops`](/engine/termops.mli).
+
+Functions manipulating tactic terms and kernel terms share the same name if they
+are the equivalent one of the other. Do not hesitate to grep Coq mli files to
+find the equivalent of a function you want to port if it is neither in `EConstr`
+nor in `Termops` (this should be very rare).
+
+### Conversion
+
+Sometimes you do not have any other choice than calling kernel-side functions
+on terms, and conversely to turn a kernel term into a tactic term.
+
+There are two functions to do so.
+* `EConstr.of_constr` turns kernel terms into tactic terms. It is currently
+the physical identity, and thus O(1), but this may change in the future.
+* `EConstr.to_constr` turns tactic terms into kernel terms. It performs a
+full-blown normalization of the given term, which is O(n) and potentially
+costly.
+
+For performance reasons, avoiding to jump back and forth between kernel and
+tactic terms is recommended.
+
+There are also a few unsafe conversion functions that take advantage of the
+fact that `EConstr.t` is internally the same as `Constr.t`. Namely,
+`EConstr.Unsafe.to_constr` is the physical identity. It should **not** be used
+in typical code and is instead provided for efficiency **when you know what you
+are doing**. Either use it to reimplement low-level functions that happen to
+be insensitive externally, or use it to provide backward compatibility with
+broken code that relies on evar-sensitivity. **Do not use it because it is
+easier than stuffing evar-maps everywhere.** You've been warned.
+
+## Notes
+
+The EConstr branch fixed a lot of eisenbugs linked to lack of normalization
+everywhere, most notably in unification. It may also have introduced a few, so
+if you see a change in behaviour *that looks like a bug*, please report it.
+Obviously, unification is not specified, so it's hard to tell apart, but still.
+
+Efficiency has been affected as well. We now pay an overhead when observing a
+term, but at the same time a lot of costly upfront normalizations were removed.
diff --git a/dev/doc/proof-engine.md b/dev/doc/proof-engine.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..db69b08a20
--- /dev/null
+++ b/dev/doc/proof-engine.md
@@ -0,0 +1,134 @@
+Tutorial on the new proof engine for ML tactic writers
+======================================================
+
+Starting from Coq 8.5, a new proof engine has been introduced, replacing the old
+meta-based engine which had a lot of drawbacks, ranging from expressivity to
+soundness, the major one being that the type of tactics was transparent. This
+was pervasively abused and made virtually impossible to tweak the implementation
+of the engine.
+
+The old engine is deprecated and is slowly getting removed from the source code.
+
+The new engine relies on a monadic API defined in the `Proofview` module. Helper
+functions and higher-level operations are defined in the `Tacmach` and
+`Tacticals` modules, and end-user tactics are defined amongst other in the
+`Tactics` module.
+
+At the root of the engine is a representation of proofs as partial terms that
+can contain typed holes, called evars, short for *existential variable*. An evar
+is essentially defined by its context and return type, that we will write
+`?e : [Γ ⊢ _ : A]`. An evar `?e` must be applied to a substitution `σ` of type
+`Γ` (i.e. a list of terms) to produce a term of type `A`, which is done by
+applying `EConstr.mkEvar`, and which we will write `?e{σ}`.
+
+The engine monad features a notion of global state called `evar_map`, defined in
+the `Evd` module, which is the structure containing the incremental refinement
+of evars. `Evd` is a low-level API and its use is discouraged in favour of the
+`Evarutil` module which provides more abstract primitives.
+
+In addition to this state, the monad also features a goal state, that is
+an ordered list of current holes to be filled. While these holes are referred
+to as goals at a high-enough level, they are actually no more than evars. The
+API provided to deal with these holes can be found in the `Proofview.Goal`
+module. Tactics are naturally operating on several goals at once, so that it is
+usual to use the `Proofview.Goal.enter` function and its variants to dispatch a
+tactic to each of the goals under focus.
+
+Primitive tactics by term refining
+-------------------------------------
+
+A typical low-level tactic will be defined by plugging partial terms in the
+goal holes thanks to the `Refine` module, and in particular to the
+`Refine.refine` primitive.
+
+```ocaml
+val refine : ?unsafe:bool -> Constr.t Sigma.run -> unit tactic
+(** In [refine ?unsafe t], [t] is a term with holes under some
+ [evar_map] context. The term [t] is used as a partial solution
+ for the current goal (refine is a goal-dependent tactic), the
+ new holes created by [t] become the new subgoals. Exceptions
+ raised during the interpretation of [t] are caught and result in
+ tactic failures. If [unsafe] is [false] (default is [true]) [t] is
+ type-checked beforehand. *)
+```
+
+In a first approximation, we can think of `'a Sigma.run` as
+`evar_map -> 'a * evar_map`. What the function does is first evaluate the
+`Constr.t Sigma.run` argument in the current proof state, and then use the
+resulting term as a filler for the proof under focus. All evars that have been
+created by the invocation of this thunk are then turned into new goals added in
+the order of their creation.
+
+To see how we can use it, let us have a look at an idealized example, the `cut`
+tactic. Assuming `X` is a type, `cut X` fills the current goal `[Γ ⊢ _ : A]`
+with a term `let x : X := ?e2{Γ} in ?e1{Γ} x` where `x` is a fresh variable and
+`?e1 : [Γ ⊢ _ : X -> A]` and `?e2 : [Γ ⊢ _ : X]`. The current goal is solved and
+two new holes `[e1, e2]` are added to the goal state in this order.
+
+```ocaml
+let cut c =
+ let open Sigma in
+ Proofview.Goal.nf_enter { enter = begin fun gl ->
+ (** In this block, we focus on one goal at a time indicated by gl *)
+ let env = Proofview.Goal.env gl in
+ (** Get the context of the goal, essentially [Γ] *)
+ let concl = Proofview.Goal.concl gl in
+ (** Get the conclusion [A] of the goal *)
+ let hyps = Tacmach.New.pf_ids_of_hyps gl in
+ (** List of hypotheses from the context of the goal *)
+ let id = Namegen.next_name_away Anonymous hyps in
+ (** Generate a fresh identifier *)
+ let t = mkArrow c (Vars.lift 1 concl) in
+ (** Build [X -> A]. Note the lifting of [A] due to being on the right hand
+ side of the arrow. *)
+ Refine.refine { run = begin fun sigma ->
+ (** All evars generated by this block will be added as goals *)
+ let Sigma (f, sigma, p) = Evarutil.new_evar env sigma t in
+ (** Generate ?e1 : [Γ ⊢ _ : X -> A], add it to sigma, and return the
+ term [f := Γ ⊢ ?e1{Γ} : X -> A] with the updated sigma. The identity
+ substitution for [Γ] is extracted from the [env] argument, so that
+ one must be careful to pass the correct context here in order for the
+ resulting term to be well-typed. The [p] return value is a proof term
+ used to enforce sigma monotonicity. *)
+ let Sigma (x, sigma, q) = Evarutil.new_evar env sigma c in
+ (** Generate ?e2 : [Γ ⊢ _ : X] in sigma and return
+ [x := Γ ⊢ ?e2{Γ} : X]. *)
+ let r = mkLetIn (Name id, x, c, mkApp (Vars.lift 1 r, [|mkRel 1|])) in
+ (** Build [r := Γ ⊢ let id : X := ?e2{Γ} in ?e1{Γ} id : A] *)
+ Sigma (r, sigma, p +> q)
+ (** Fills the current hole with [r]. The [p +> q] thingy ensures
+ monotonicity of sigma. *)
+ end }
+ end }
+```
+
+The `Evarutil.new_evar` function is the preferred way to generate evars in
+tactics. It returns a ready-to-use term, so that one does not have to call
+the `mkEvar` primitive. There are lower-level variants whose use is dedicated to
+special use cases, *e.g.* whenever one wants a non-identity substitution. One
+should take care to call it with the proper `env` argument so that the evar
+and term it generates make sense in the context they will be plugged in.
+
+For the sake of completeness, the old engine was relying on the `Tacmach.refine`
+function to provide a similar feature. Nonetheless, it was using untyped metas
+instead of evars, so that it had to mangle the argument term to actually produce
+the term that would be put into the hole. For instance, to work around the
+untypedness, some metas had to be coerced with a cast to enforce their type,
+otherwise leading to runtime errors. This was working for very simple
+instances, but was unreliable for everything else.
+
+High-level composition of tactics
+------------------------------------
+
+It is possible to combine low-level refinement tactics to create more powerful
+abstractions. While it was the standard way of doing things in the old engine
+to overcome its technical limitations (namely that one was forced to go through
+a limited set of derivation rules), it is recommended to generate proofs as
+much as possible by refining in ML tactics when it is possible and easy enough.
+Indeed, this prevents dependence on fragile constructions such as unification.
+
+Obviously, it does not forbid the use of tacticals to mimick what one would do
+in Ltac. Each Ltac primitive has a corresponding ML counterpart with simple
+semantics. A list of such tacticals can be found in the `Tacticals` module. Most
+of them are a porting of the tacticals from the old engine to the new one, so
+that if they share the same name they are expected to have the same semantics.
diff --git a/dev/doc/style.txt b/dev/doc/style.txt
index 27695a09b1..2ee3dadd77 100644
--- a/dev/doc/style.txt
+++ b/dev/doc/style.txt
@@ -1,75 +1,142 @@
-
-<< L'uniformité du style est plus importante que le style lui-même. >>
-(Kernigan & Pike, The Practice of Programming)
-
-Mode Emacs
-==========
- Tuareg, que l'on trouve ici : http://www.prism.uvsq.fr/~acohen/tuareg/
-
- avec le réglage suivant : (setq tuareg-in-indent 2)
-
-Types récursifs et filtrages
-============================
- Une barre de séparation y compris sur le premier constructeur
-
-type t =
- | A
- | B of machin
-
-match expr with
- | A -> ...
- | B x -> ...
-
-Remarque : à partir de la 8.2 environ, la tendance est à utiliser le
-format suivant qui permet de limiter l'escalade d'indentation tout en
-produisant un aspect visuel intéressant de bloc :
-
-type t =
-| A
-| B of machin
-
-match expr with
-| A -> ...
-| B x -> ...
-
-let f expr = match expr with
-| A -> ...
-| B x -> ...
-
-let f expr = function
-| A -> ...
-| B x -> ...
-
-Le deuxième cas est obtenu sous tuareg avec les réglages
-
- (setq tuareg-with-indent 0)
- (setq tuareg-function-indent 0)
- (setq tuareg-let-always-indent nil) /// notons que cette dernière est bien
- /// pour les let mais pas pour les let-in
-
-Conditionnelles
-===============
- if condition then
- premier-cas
- else
- deuxieme-cas
-
- Si effets de bord dans les branches, utilisez begin ... end et non des
- parenthèses i.e.
-
- if condition then begin
- instr1;
- instr2
- end else begin
- instr3;
- instr4
- end
-
- Si la première branche lève une exception, évitez le else i.e.
-
- if condition then if condition then error "machin";
- error "machin" -----> suite
+<< Style uniformity is more important than style itself >>
+ (Kernigan & Pike, The Practice of Programming)
+
+OCaml Style:
+- Spacing and indentation
+ - indent your code (using tuareg default)
+ - no strong constraints in formatting "let in"; possible styles are:
+ "let x = ... in"
+ "let x =
+ ... in"
+ "let
+ x = ...
+ in"
+ - but: no extra indentation before a "in" coming on next line,
+ otherwise, it first shifts further and further on the right,
+ reducing the amount of space available; second, it is not robust to
+ insertion of a new "let"
+ - it is established usage to have space around "|" as in
+ "match c with
+ | [] | [a] -> ...
+ | a::b::l -> ..."
+ - in a one-line "match", it is preferred to have no "|" in front of
+ the first case (this saves spaces for the match to hold in the line)
+ - from about 8.2, the tendency is to use the following format which
+ limit excessive indentation while providing an interesting "block" aspect
+ type t =
+ | A
+ | B of machin
+
+ let f expr = match expr with
+ | A -> ...
+ | B x -> ...
+
+ let f expr = function
+ | A -> ...
+ | B x -> ...
+ - add spaces around = and == (make the code "breaths")
+ - the common usage is to write "let x,y = ... in ..." rather than
+ "let (x,y) = ... in ..."
+ - parenthesizing with either "(" and ")" or with "begin" and "end" is
+ common practice
+ - preferred layout for conditionals:
+ if condition then
+ premier-cas
else
- suite
-
-
+ deuxieme-cas
+ - in case of effects in branches, use "begin ... end" rather than
+ parentheses
+ if condition then begin
+ instr1;
+ instr2
+ end else begin
+ instr3;
+ instr4
+ end
+ - if the first branch raises an exception, avoid the "else", i.e.:
+ if condition then if condition then error "foo";
+ error "foo" -----> bar
+ else
+ bar
+ - it is the usage not to use ;; to end OCaml sentences (however,
+ inserting ";;" can be useful for debugging syntax errors crossing
+ the boundary of functions)
+ - relevant options in tuareg:
+ (setq tuareg-in-indent 2)
+ (setq tuareg-with-indent 0)
+ (setq tuareg-function-indent 0)
+ (setq tuareg-let-always-indent nil)
+
+- Coding methodology
+ - no "try ... with _ -> ..." which catches even Sys.Break (Ctrl-C),
+ Out_of_memory, Stack_overflow, etc.
+ at least, use "try with e when Errors.noncritical e -> ..."
+ (to be detailed, Pierre L. ?)
+ - do not abuse of fancy combinators: sometimes what a "let rec" loop
+ does is more readable and simpler to grasp than what a "fold" does
+ - do not break abstractions: if an internal property is hidden
+ behind an interface, do no rely on it in code which uses this
+ interface (e.g. do not use List.map thinking it is left-to-right,
+ use map_left)
+ - in particular, do not use "=" on abstract types: there is no
+ reason a priori that it is the intended equality on this type; use the
+ "equal" function normally provided with the abstract type
+ - avoid polymorphically typed "=" whose implementation is not
+ optimized in OCaml and which has moreover no reason to be the
+ intended implementation of the equality when it comes to be
+ instantiated on a particular type (e.g. use List.mem_f,
+ List.assoc_f, rather than List.mem, List.assoc, etc, unless it is
+ absolutely clear that "=" will implement the intended equality, and
+ with the right complexity)
+ - any new general-purpose enough combinator on list should be put in
+ cList.ml, on type option in cOpt.ml, etc.
+ - unless of a good reason not to so, follow the style of the
+ surrounding code in the same file as much as possible,
+ the general guidelines are otherwise "let spacing breaths" (we
+ have large screen nowadays), "make your code easy to read and
+ to understand"
+ - document what is tricky, but do not overdocument, sometimes the
+ choice of names and the structuration of the code is a better
+ documentation than a long discourse; use of unicode in comments is
+ welcome if it can make comments more readable (then
+ "toggle-enable-multibyte-characters" can help when using the
+ debugger in emacs)
+ - all of initial "open File", or of small-scope File.(...), or
+ per-ident File.foo are common practices
+
+- Choice of variable names
+ - be consistent when naming from one function to another
+ - be consistent with the naming adopted in the functions from the
+ same file, or with the naming used elsewhere by similar functions
+ - use variable names which express meaning
+ - keep "cst" for constants and avoid it for constructors which is
+ otherwise a source of confusion
+ - for constructors, use "cstr" in type constructor (resp. "cstru" in
+ constructor puniverse); avoid "constr" for "constructor" which
+ could be think as the name of an arbitrary Constr.t
+ - for inductive types, use "ind" in the type inductive (resp "indu"
+ in inductive puniverse)
+ - for env, use "env"
+ - for evar_map, use "sigma", with tolerance into "evm" and "evd"
+ - for named_context or rel_context, use "ctxt" or "ctx" (or "sign")
+ - for formal/actual indices of inductive types: "realdecls", "realargs"
+ - for formal/actual parameters of inductive types: "paramdecls", "paramargs"
+ - for terms, use e.g. c, b, a, ...
+ - if a term is known to be a function: f, ...
+ - if a term is known to be a type: t, u, typ, ...
+ - for a declaration, use d or "decl"
+ - for errors, exceptions, use e
+
+- Common OCaml pitfalls
+ - in "match ... with Case1 -> try ... with ... -> ... | Case2 -> ...", or in
+ "match ... with Case1 -> match ... with SubCase -> ... | Case2 -> ...", or in
+ parentheses are needed around the "try" and the inner "match"
+ - even if stream are lazy, the Pp.(++) combinator is strict and
+ forces the evaluation of its arguments (use a "lazy" or a "fun () ->")
+ to make it lazy explicitly
+ - in "if ... then ... else ... ++ ...", the default parenthesizing
+ is somehow counter-intuitive; use "(if ... then ... else ...) ++ ..."
+ - in "let myspecialfun = mygenericfun args", be sure that it does no
+ do side-effect; prefer otherwise "let mygenericfun arg =
+ mygenericfun args arg" to ensure that the function is evaluated at
+ runtime