Computer-Aided Reasoning: An Approach is a textbook introduction to computer-aided reasoning. It can be used in graduate and upper-division undergraduate courses on software engineering or formal methods. It is also suitable in conjunction with other books in courses on hardware design, discrete mathematics, or theory, especially courses stressing formalism, rigor, or mechanized support. It is also appropriate for courses on artificial intelligence or automated reasoning and as a reference for business and industry.Current hardware and software systems are often very complex and the trend is towards increased complexity. Many of these systems are of critical importance; therefore making sure that they behave as expected is also of critical importance. By modeling computing systems mathematically, we obtain models that we can prove behave correctly. The complexity of computing systems makes such proofs very long, complicated, and error-prone. To further increase confidence in our reasoning, we can use a computer program to check our proofs and even to automate some of their construction.In this book we present:

1 Introduction.- 1.1 Book Layout.- 1.2 The ACL2 System.- 1.3 Important Conventions and Information.- 1.4 Intended Audience.- I Preliminaries.- 2 Overview.- II Programming.- 3 The Language.- 4 Programming Exercises.- 5 Macros.- III Reasoning.- 6 The Logic.- 7 Proof Examples.- IV Gaming.- 8 The Mechanical Theorem Prover.- 9 How to Use the Theorem Prover.- 10 Theorem Prover Examples.- 11 Theorem Prover Exercises.- Appendices.- A Using the ACL2 System.- A.1 Introduction.- A.2 The Read-Eval-Print Loop.- A.3 Managing ACL2 Sessions.- A.4 Using the Documentation.- B Additional Features.- B.1 Proof/Session Management.- B.2 Working with the Rewriter.- B.3 Rule Classes.- B.4 The ACL2 State and IO.- B.5 Efficient Execution.- B.6 Other Topics.- B.7 Troubleshooting Guide.