Abstract
The design of the Alphard programming language has been strongly influenced by ideas from the areas of programming methodology and formal program verification. In this paper we design, implement, and verify a general symbol table mechanism. This example is rich enough to allow us to illustrate the use as well as the definition of programmer-defined abstractions. The verification illustrates the power of the form to simplify proofs by providing strong specifications of such abstractions.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
David Gries, Compiler Construction for Digital Computers, Wiley, 1971.
John Guttag, “Abstract Data Types and the Development of Data Structures”, Supplement to the Proceedings of the SICPLAN/SICMOD Conference on Data: Abstraction, Definition and Structure, March 1976 (pp. 37–46). Also Comnuxnications of the ACM (to appear).
Paul R. Haimos, Naive Set Theory, Van Nostrand, 1960.
C. A. R. Moare, “Proof of Correctness of Data Representations”, Acta Information, 1, 4, 1972 (pp. 271–281 ).
Donald E. Knuth, The Art of Computer Programming Volume 3, Sorting and Searching, Addison-Wesley, 1973.
Mary Shaw, “Abstraction and Verification in Alphard: Design and Verification of a Tree Handler”, Proc. fifth Texas Conference on Computing Systems, 1976 (pp. 86–94 ).
Mary Shaw, Wm. A. Wulf, and Ralph L. London, “Abstraction and Verification in Alphard: Iteration and Generators”, Carnegie-Mellon University and USC Information Sciences Institute Technical Reportst 1976. Also Communications of the ACM (to appear).
Ben Wegbreit and Jay M. Spitzen, “Proving Properties of Complex Data Structures”, Journal of the ACM, 23, 2, April 1976 (pp. 389–396 ).
Wm. A. Wulf, Ralph L. London, and Mary Shaw, “Abstraction and Verification in Alphard: Introduction to Language and Methodology”, Carnegie-Mellon University and USC Information Sciences Institute Technical Reports, 1976.
Wm. A. Wulf, Ralph L. London, and Mary Shaw, “An Introduction to the Construction and Verification of Alphard Programs”, IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, SE- 2, 4, December 1976 (pp. 253–265 ).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1978 Elsevier North-Holland, Inc.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
London, R.L., Shaw, M., Wulf, W.A. (1978). Abstraction and Verification in Alphard: A Symbol Table Example. In: Shaw, M. (eds) Alphard: Form and Content. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-5979-4_11
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-5979-4_11
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-0-387-90663-8
Online ISBN: 978-1-4612-5979-4
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive