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Flow Diagrams, Assertions, and Formal Methods

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Formal Methods. FM 2019 International Workshops (FM 2019)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNPSE,volume 12233))

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Abstract

This paper examines the early history of the flow diagram notation developed by Herman Goldstine and John von Neumann in the mid-1940s. It emphasizes the motivation for the notation’s mathematical aspects and the provision made for formally checking the consistency of diagrams. Goldstine and von Neumann’s introduction of assertion boxes is considered in detail. The practical use of flow diagrams is considered briefly, and the paper then reads Turing’s 1949 essay on “Checking a large routine” in the light of his likely knowledge of the Goldstine/von Neumann notation. In particular, his different use of the term “assertion” is considered, and related to the earlier work.

I thank Troy Astarte and Brian Randell for the invitation to give the talk at the HFM 2019 workshop on which this paper is based.

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References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The National Museum of Computing, Bletchley Park, UK

    Mark Priestley

Authors
  1. Mark Priestley
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Correspondence to Mark Priestley .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada

    Emil Sekerinski

  2. University of Porto, Porto, Portugal

    Nelma Moreira

  3. University of Minho, Braga, Portugal

    José N. Oliveira

  4. Argo Ai, Munich, Germany

    Daniel Ratiu

  5. University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy

    Riccardo Guidotti

  6. University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK

    Marie Farrell

  7. University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK

    Matt Luckcuck

  8. University of Exeter, Exeter, UK

    Diego Marmsoler

  9. University of Minho, Braga, Portugal

    José Campos

  10. University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK

    Troy Astarte

  11. Claude Bernard University, Lyon, France

    Laure Gonnord

  12. Nazarbayev University, Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan

    Antonio Cerone

  13. University of Surrey, Guildford, UK

    Luis Couto

  14. University of Surrey, Guildford, UK

    Brijesh Dongol

  15. University of Giessen, Giessen, Germany

    Martin Kutrib

  16. University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal

    Pedro Monteiro

  17. Airbus Operations S.A.S., Toulouse, France

    David Delmas

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Priestley, M. (2020). Flow Diagrams, Assertions, and Formal Methods. In: Sekerinski, E., et al. Formal Methods. FM 2019 International Workshops. FM 2019. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 12233. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-54997-8_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-54997-8_1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

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  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-54997-8

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