This is the README file for version 0.3 "Castleton" of the E
equational theorem prover. E is free software, see the file COPYING
for details about the license and the fact that THERE IS NO WARRANTY!

Release 0.3 is the first version that has been extensivly tested over
the TPTP. It should be reasonable bug free.


What is E? What is CLIB?
------------------------

E is an equational theorem prover. That means it is a program that you
can stuff a mathematical specification (in clausal logic with
equality) and a hypothesis into, and which will then run forever,
using up all of your machines resources. Very occasionally it will
find a proof for the hypothesis and tell you so ;-).

CLIB is a collection of library functions for building one class of
interesting and cool programs. Interesting and cool programs read a
specification file (or multiple files), process the input, and print a
result, or they are games. Examples for cool and interesting programs
are DISCOUNT (a distributed theorem prover), proof (a proof
transformation tool), DOOM (a game) and xevil (also a game). The sole
exception to this rule is EMACS, which is interesting and cool despite
being interactive and not a game. But then there are games within
EMACS...

At the moment CLIB is more suited for theorem provers and similar
programs, and less useful for games. This will probably change as soon
as the game potential of theorem provers is recognized.

CLIB is layered, with higher layers becoming more specialized. Lower
levels take care of the scientifically uninteresting, but necessary
services for production-quality efficient programs, e.g. error
handling, memory management, parsing of input, etc. They should be
useful for most programs (even for some interactive programs).

Higher level modules implement shared and unshared terms, equations,
clauses and related stuff.

My aim in writing this library is to ease the development of E and a
couple of auxiliary programst. While I try to keep new features useful
for other purposes, this direction determines which features I myself
will add.

CLIB has been created and is currently maintained by Stephan Schulz,
<schulz@informatik.tu-muenchen.de>.


Installation:
-------------

To install the package, unpack the distribution with "gunzip
CLIB.tgz|tar -xvf -" (or "tar -xzf CLIB.tgz" if you have GNU
tar). This should create a directory named CLIB.

After unpacking, "make install" in the CLIB directory should compile
and install the library and all included programs (all under the CLIB
directory). Type "make documentation" to translate the rudimentary
LaTeX documentation. For some operating systems, you may need to edit
Makefile.vars to select tools and options. In particular, "ar" under
FreeBSD lacks the -s Option. You can leave it out, but need to add
instances of libraries in the linking stage of CLIB/PROVER/Makefile
(sorry, I do not have a FreeBSD system, so I cannot tell you more)
until the linking works.

After installation, go to CLIB/PROVER and type "./eprover
BOO001-1+rm_eq_rstfp.lop" to see the prover in action. Type "./eprover
BOO007-2+rm_eq_rstfp.lop" if you are patient. "./eprover -h" will give
you some information and a list of options.

As a beginner, you might want to stick to 

   eprover -tAuto -xAuto <problem_file>

Have fun!


Directory overview:
-------------------

DOC:


  - Documentation, including a LaTeX manual for (at the moment) parts
    of the library. You should be looking there instead of reading
    this file ;-)

    Also has the project HISTORY file and some short notes on
    porting.

include:

  - Symbolic links to all user-relevant header files

lib:

  - Symbolic links to the individual library modules

BASICS:
INOUT:
TERMS:
ORDERINGS:
CLAUSES:
HEURISTICS:
CONTROL:

  - Sources and object files for the individual library modules

TEST:

  - Test programs for development work

SIMPLE_APPS:

  - Small application programs for demonstration purposes as well as
    for solving simple tasks.

PROVER:

  - The main program for the E prover, also contains some examples and
    stuff.

SKELETONS:

  - Skeleton files for source files, make files, comment boxes,...


EXAMPLES:

  - Example problems (unit-equality specifications) taken from the
    TPTP 2.1.0 library.