Abstract
This Chapter focuses on the approach of Dijkstra, Hoare and Parnas. We discuss the calculus of weakest preconditions developed by Dijkstra and the axiomatic semantics of programming languages developed by Hoare. We then discuss the classical engineering approach of Parnas and his tabular expressions.
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Notes
- 1.
Software testing is an essential part of the software process, and various types of testing are described in [ORg:02]. Modern software testing is quite rigorous and can provide a high degree of confidence that the software is fit for use. It cannot, of course, build quality in; rather, it can provide confidence that quality has been built in. The analysis of the defects identified during testing may be useful in improving the software development process.
- 2.
Parnas argues that the term engineer’ should be used only in its classical sense as a person who is qualified and educated in science and mathematics to design and inspect products. The evolution of language that has led to a debasement of the term ‘engineer’ with various groups who do not have the appropriate background to be considered ‘engineers’ in the classical sense applying this title.
- 3.
Many of these examples are considered “toy programs” when compared to real-world industrial software development, but they illustrate the concepts involved in developing software rigorously using the weakest precondition calculus.
Reference
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D. Gries, The Science of Programming (Springer, Berlin, 1981)
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C.A.R. Hoare, An axiomatic basis for computer programming. Commun. ACM 12(10), 576–585 (1969)
D. Hoffman, D.L. Parnas, in Software Fundamentals, ed. by D. Weiss. Collected Papers by D.L. Parnas (Addison Wesley, Reading, 21)
R. Janicki, On a Formal Semantics of Tabular Expressions. Technical Report CRL 355. Communications Research Laboratory, McMaster University, Ontario (1997)
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O’Regan, G. (2017). Dijkstra, Hoare and Parnas. In: Concise Guide to Formal Methods. Undergraduate Topics in Computer Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64021-1_12
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64021-1_12
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