This PR adds the simproc String.reduceToSingleton`, which is disabled by
default and turns `"c"` into `String.singleton 'c'`.
Recall that the simproc `reduceSingleton`, which does the reverse, is
part of the default `simp` set.
This PR optimizes the `String.reduceEq`, `String.reduceNe`, and
`Sym.Simp` string equality simprocs to produce kernel-efficient proofs.
Previously, these used `String.decEq` which forced the kernel to run
UTF-8 encoding/decoding and byte array comparison, causing 86+ kernel
unfoldings on short strings.
The new approach reduces string inequality to `List Char` via
`String.ofList_injective`, then uses two strategies depending on the
difference:
- **Different characters at position `i`**: Projects to `Nat` via
`congrArg (fun l => (List.get!Internal l i).toNat)`, then uses
`Nat.ne_of_beq_eq_false rfl`. This avoids `Decidable` instances entirely
— the kernel only evaluates `Nat.beq` on two concrete natural numbers.
- **One string is a prefix of the other**: Uses `congrArg (List.drop n
·)` with `List.cons_ne_nil`, which is a definitional proof requiring no
`decide` step at all.
For equal strings, `eq_true rfl` avoids kernel evaluation entirely.
The shared proof construction is in `Lean.Meta.mkStringLitNeProof`
(`Lean/Meta/StringLitProof.lean`), used by both the standard simprocs
and the `Sym.Simp` ground evaluator.
Kernel max unfolds for `"hello" ≠ "foo"`: 86+ → 6.
---------
Co-authored-by: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
This PR establishes `String.ofList` and `String.toList` as the preferred
method for converting between strings and lists of characters and
deprecates the alternatives `String.mk`, `List.asString` and
`String.data`.
