A New Interaction Concept for Interactive and Autoactive Program Verification

Fuente: arXiv
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Auteurs principaux: Pfeifer, Wolfram, Ulbrich, Mattias, Drodt, Daniel
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2026
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author Pfeifer, Wolfram
Ulbrich, Mattias
Drodt, Daniel
author_facet Pfeifer, Wolfram
Ulbrich, Mattias
Drodt, Daniel
contents Fully functional program verification is an undecidable$\unicode{x2014}$and, hence, inherently difficult$\unicode{x2014}$task, that is not automatically solvable but typically requires user interaction and guidance. Existing verifiers either work autoactively, requiring the user to write annotations in source code, without the possibility to inspect the proof state or intervene in case of an unsuccessful attempt, or allow interactions on a logical encoding that is on a lower level than the user-provided specifications. We present a novel interaction concept which allows the user to inspect and interact with the proof state on source code and specification level. This minimizes the mental gap between the representations. We provide an implementation of the concept as a plugin for the Java verification engine KeY, and show with a user study that this prototype can be beneficial for users to understand the proof state and find defects in source code or specifications.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2605_06972
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle A New Interaction Concept for Interactive and Autoactive Program Verification
Pfeifer, Wolfram
Ulbrich, Mattias
Drodt, Daniel
Programming Languages
Logic in Computer Science
D.2.4; F.3.1
Fully functional program verification is an undecidable$\unicode{x2014}$and, hence, inherently difficult$\unicode{x2014}$task, that is not automatically solvable but typically requires user interaction and guidance. Existing verifiers either work autoactively, requiring the user to write annotations in source code, without the possibility to inspect the proof state or intervene in case of an unsuccessful attempt, or allow interactions on a logical encoding that is on a lower level than the user-provided specifications. We present a novel interaction concept which allows the user to inspect and interact with the proof state on source code and specification level. This minimizes the mental gap between the representations. We provide an implementation of the concept as a plugin for the Java verification engine KeY, and show with a user study that this prototype can be beneficial for users to understand the proof state and find defects in source code or specifications.
title A New Interaction Concept for Interactive and Autoactive Program Verification
topic Programming Languages
Logic in Computer Science
D.2.4; F.3.1
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.06972