A tactic is an ordered list of theories, that determines the traversal of a rule base 3 to determine if one or several rules will be applied.
Theories are classified in two categories:
A full tactic is presented as a combination of a backward tactic and a forward tactic:
The forward tactic is optional.
The traversal of a tactic thus consists in searching in each backward theory a rule that can be applied. The search order corresponds to the order of the listed theories.
If a rule can be applied, it is then applied and the search continues with the next theory. This process is repeated until no more backward theories remain.
If, during the search through the backward theories, at least one hypothesis has been generated, the process described for the backward theories will apply for the list of forward theories (if there are any), and this is repeated each time a hypothesis is produced.
A theory or a group of theories can be “tilded”. In this case, there will be an attempt to apply a rule of this theory as long as the rules of this theory are applied. When no more rules are applied, the next theory will be examined.
Example:
Implicitly, the most external list of theories is “tilded”, which means that:
is equivalent to