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zozbot234 2 hours ago

> My point isn't that most algorithm/program proofs need the excluded middle, it's that they don't benefit from not having it, either.

Because if they benefited from it (in surfacing computational content, which is the whole point of constructive proof) they'd be comprised within the algorithm, not the proof.

pron 2 hours ago | parent [-]

> in surfacing computational content, which is the whole point of constructive proof

The point of a constructive proof is that the proof itself is in some way computational [1], not that the algorithm is. When I wrote formal proofs, I used either TLA+ or Isabelle/HOL, neither of which are constructive. It's easy to describe the notion of "constructive computation" in a non-constructive logic without any additional effort (that's because non-constructive logics are a superset of constructive logics; i.e. they strictly admit more theorems).

[1]: Disregarding computational complexity

zozbot234 2 hours ago | parent [-]

> When I wrote formal proofs, I used either TLA+ or Isabelle/HOL, neither of which are constructive.

True, but this requires using different formal systems for the algorithm and the proof. Isabelle/HOL being non-constructive means you can't fully express proof-carrying code in that single system, without tacking on something else for the "purely computational" added content.