Robert A. Reckhow coauthored the 1979 paper establishing a general computational framework for propositional proof systems with Stephen Cook. Their formulation represents a proof system by a polynomial-time computable surjection onto the logical tautologies, separating verification cost from the length of the shortest proof.[ref]
The paper compares systems using efficient translations of proofs. If proofs in one system can be converted to proofs in another by a polynomial-time procedure, the translated proofs can grow only polynomially in length. Such a comparison is stronger than observing that both systems eventually prove the same formulas: completeness alone places no useful bound on the cost of converting evidence. This gives proof complexity a way to compare proof formats as computational representations.[ref]

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