Scheme Theorem Proving For Pedagogical Purposes With ACL2

Beginning programming students could benefit very much from having more feedback about their programs as the work than the standard syntax checking. It would be very useful if they could have an immediate proof of logical correctness or feedback as to where their logic is faulty. As a first step toward the ultimate goal of having this built in Scheme, we built an interpreter for the Dr. Scheme Beginning Student Language in ACL2 and proved many theorems in ACL2 about the correctness of programs written in our interpreter. This helps us to see some of the ways of thinking about Scheme proofs that can greatly assist when it comes to building the prover in Scheme.