hatt-0.3: README.md

Hatt
====

[Hatt] is a command-line program which prints truth tables for expressions in
classical propositional logic, and a library allowing its parser, evaluator and
truth table generator to be used in other programs.


Installation
------------

Hatt is available from [Hackage]. To install it with `cabal-install`, update
your list of known packages and then install Hatt.

    $ cabal update
    $ cabal install hatt

To build it from source, `cd` into the directory containing the Hatt source
files, including `hatt.cabal`, and run `cabal install`.


Valid Hatt expressions
----------------------

The following are all valid expression forms which can be parsed by Hatt, where
ϕ and ψ are metalinguistic variables standing in for any valid expression. The
parser isn't as smart about parentheses as it could be, so you have to follow
these rules quite literally. This shouldn't be a great hardship, but it does
mean that, for example, while `(A -> B)` is a valid expression, `A -> B` isn't.

* Variables: `P`, `Q`, `R` etc.---basically anything in the character class
  `[A-Z]`
* Negation: `~ϕ`
* Conjunction: `(ϕ & ψ)`
* Disjunction: `(ϕ | ψ)`
* Conditional: `(ϕ -> ψ)`
* Biconditional: `(ϕ <-> ψ)`


Using the `hatt` command-line program
-------------------------------------

The default mode is interactive: you start the program, enter expressions at
the prompt, and their truth tables are printed. Here's an example session.

    $ hatt
    Entering interactive mode. Type `help` if you don't know what to do!
    > help
    Hatt's interactive mode has a couple of commands.
    
    help
      Print this help text.
    
    exit
      Quit the program.
    
    If you don't type in a command, the program will assume you're writing a
    logical expression to be evaluated and attempt to parse it.
    
    For example, if you enter "(A -> B)" at the prompt, Hatt will print the
    truth table for that expression. Here's an example console session.
    
        > (A | B)
        A B | (A ∨ B)
        -------------
        T T | T
        T F | T
        F T | T
        F F | F
        > foobar
        Error: parse error at (line 1, column 1):
        unexpected "f"
        expecting white space, "(" or "~"
       > exit
    
    If none of this makes any sense, try reading the README file.
    > (A -> B)
    A B | (A -> B)
    --------------
    T T | F
    T F | F
    F T | F
    F F | T
    > exit

The `--evaluate` flag lets you pass a single expression to be evaluated
directly.

    $ hatt --evaluate="(P -> (Q | ~R))"
    P Q R | (P -> (Q | ~R))
    -----------------------
    T T T | F
    T T F | F
    T F T | F
    T F F | F
    F T T | F
    F T F | F
    F F T | T
    F F F | F

By default, `hatt` will print ASCII representations of expressions. If you have
a Unicode-capable terminal, try passing the `--pretty` option to pretty-print
expressions using the the more common logical symbols.

    $ hatt --evaluate="(P -> (Q | ~R))" --pretty
    P Q R | (P → (Q ∨ ¬R))
    ----------------------
    T T T | F
    T T F | F
    T F T | F
    T F F | F
    F T T | F
    F T F | F
    F F T | T
    F F F | F


Using Hatt in other programs
----------------------------

Hatt exposes the `Data.Logic.Propositional` module, which provides a simple API
for parsing, evaluating, and printing truth tables.


[Hatt]:    http://extralogical.net/projects/hatt
[Hackage]: http://hackage.haskell.org/