leanprover / leanprover/lean4

Implicitness update changes the first occurence rather than the last

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bug P-medium
Dominant language
Lean
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Description

Prerequisites
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Description

It's convenient that Lean 4 allows using the same name for multiple variables; normally, only the last occurrence of the name will be accessible, and all previous ones will be shadowed. However, this behavior is not respected by implicitness updates:

variable (R : Type _) [Add R]
variable (R : Type _) [Mul R]
variable {R} -- this update changes the first R to an implicit variable, but does nothing to the second.
 
theorem add_eq_add (r : R) : r * r = r * r := rfl
#print add_eq_add
/- theorem add_eq_add.{u_1} : ∀ (R : Type u_1) [inst : Mul R] (r : R), r * r = r * r :=
fun R [Mul R] r => rfl 
This is the second R and it remains explicit. -/

If the first R is already implicit, we get an error:

variable {R : Type _} [Add R]
variable (R : Type _) [Mul R]
variable {R} /- redundant binder annotation update -/

It makes no sense to update the first R, since there is no way to refer to it in theorem statements.

Steps to Reproduce

Paste the snippet above into an editor.

Expected behavior: the second R should be made implicit by variable {R}

Actual behavior: the first R is made implicit by variable {R} but the second R remains explicit

Versions

"4.5.0-rc1"
Lean 4 Web Editor (https://live.lean-lang.org/)

Impact

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Contributor guide

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First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by reproducing the minimal variable-shadowing snippet in the Lean 4 Web Editor and compare the printed theorem with the expected behavior. Trace the implicitness update handling for repeated variable names; done means variable {R} updates the last, accessible R and reports redundancy only when that binder is already implicit.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Domain
compilers
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Active
Clarity
Clearly specified
Newbie friendliness
55/100

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