--- /dev/null
+(**************************************************************************)
+(* ___ *)
+(* ||M|| *)
+(* ||A|| A project by Andrea Asperti *)
+(* ||T|| *)
+(* ||I|| Developers: *)
+(* ||T|| The HELM team. *)
+(* ||A|| http://helm.cs.unibo.it *)
+(* \ / *)
+(* \ / This file is distributed under the terms of the *)
+(* v GNU General Public License Version 2 *)
+(* *)
+(**************************************************************************)
+
+include "background/preamble.ma".
+
+(* SUBSETS OF SUBTERMS ******************************************************)
+
+(* Policy: boolean marks metavariables: b,c
+ subterms metavariables: F,G,T,U,V,W
+*)
+(* Note: each subterm is marked with true if it belongs to the subset *)
+inductive subterms: Type[0] ≝
+| SVRef: bool → nat → subterms
+| SAbst: bool → subterms → subterms
+| SAppl: bool → subterms → subterms → subterms
+.
+
+interpretation "subterms construction (variable reference by index)"
+ 'VariableReferenceByIndex b i = (SVRef b i).
+
+interpretation "subterms construction (abstraction)"
+ 'Abstraction b T = (SAbst b T).
+
+interpretation "subterms construction (application)"
+ 'Application b V T = (SAppl b V T).
+
+(*
+definition compatible_abst: predicate (relation term) ≝ λR.
+ ∀A1,A2. R A1 A2 → R (𝛌.A1) (𝛌.A2).
+
+definition compatible_sn: predicate (relation term) ≝ λR.
+ ∀A,B1,B2. R B1 B2 → R (@B1.A) (@B2.A).
+
+definition compatible_dx: predicate (relation term) ≝ λR.
+ ∀B,A1,A2. R A1 A2 → R (@B.A1) (@B.A2).
+
+definition compatible_appl: predicate (relation term) ≝ λR.
+ ∀B1,B2. R B1 B2 → ∀A1,A2. R A1 A2 →
+ R (@B1.A1) (@B2.A2).
+
+lemma star_compatible_abst: ∀R. compatible_abst R → compatible_abst (star … R).
+#R #HR #A1 #A2 #H elim H -A2 // /3 width=3/
+qed.
+
+lemma star_compatible_sn: ∀R. compatible_sn R → compatible_sn (star … R).
+#R #HR #A #B1 #B2 #H elim H -B2 // /3 width=3/
+qed.
+
+lemma star_compatible_dx: ∀R. compatible_dx R → compatible_dx (star … R).
+#R #HR #B #A1 #A2 #H elim H -A2 // /3 width=3/
+qed.
+
+lemma star_compatible_appl: ∀R. reflexive ? R →
+ compatible_appl R → compatible_appl (star … R).
+#R #H1R #H2R #B1 #B2 #H elim H -B2 /3 width=1/ /3 width=5/
+qed.
+*)