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A Hoare Logic Contract Theory: An Exercise in Denotational Semantics

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Principled Software Development

Abstract

We sketch a simple theory of Hoare logic contracts for programs with procedures, presented in denotational semantics. In particular, we give a simple semantic justification of the usual procedure-modular treatment of such programs. The justification is given by means of a proof of soundness of a contract-relative denotational semantics against the standard denotational semantics of procedures in the context of procedure declarations. The suggested formal development can be used as an inspiration for more ambitious contract theories.

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Acknowledgement

We thank Wolfgang Ahrendt for valuable comments on an earlier draft of the paper.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden

    Dilian Gurov & Jonas Westman

  2. Systems Development Division, Scania AB, Södertälje, Sweden

    Jonas Westman

Authors
  1. Dilian Gurov
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  2. Jonas Westman
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Dilian Gurov .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland

    Peter Müller

  2. Institut für Softwaretechnik und Fahrzeuginformatik, Technische Universität Braunschweig, Braunschweig, Germany

    Ina Schaefer

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Gurov, D., Westman, J. (2018). A Hoare Logic Contract Theory: An Exercise in Denotational Semantics. In: Müller, P., Schaefer, I. (eds) Principled Software Development. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98047-8_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98047-8_8

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-98046-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-98047-8

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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