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Predicate Calculus and Program Semantics

  • Textbook
  • © 1990

Overview

Authors:
  1. Edsger W. Dijkstra

    1. University of Texas at Austin, Austin, USA

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  2. Carel S. Scholten

    1. Beekbergen, The Netherlands

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Part of the book series: Monographs in Computer Science (MCS)

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Table of contents (12 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xi
    Download chapter PDF

  2. On structures

    • Edsger W. Dijkstra, Carel S. Schotten
    Pages 1-9

  3. On substitution and replacement

    • Edsger W. Dijkstra, Carel S. Scholten
    Pages 11-16

  4. On functions and equality

    • Edsger W. Dijkstra, Carel S. Schotten
    Pages 17-20

  5. On our proof format

    • Edsger W. Dijkstra, Carel S. Scholten
    Pages 21-29

  6. The calculus of boolean structures

    • Edsger W. Dijkstra, Carel S. Schölten
    Pages 30-80

  7. Some properties of predicate transformers

    • Edsger W. Dijkstra, Carel S. Scholten
    Pages 81-120

  8. Semantics of straight-line programs

    • Edsger W. Dijkstra, Carel S. Schölten
    Pages 121-146

  9. Equations in predicates and their extreme solutions

    • Edsger W. Dijkstra, Carel S. Schölten
    Pages 147-170

  10. Semantics of repetitions

    • Edsger W. Dijkstra, Carel S. Schölten
    Pages 170-189

  11. Operational considerations

    • Edsger W. Dijkstra, Carel S. Schölten
    Pages 190-200

  12. Converse predicate transformers

    • Edsger W. Dijkstra, Carel S. Schölten
    Pages 201-208

  13. The strongest postcondition

    • Edsger W. Dijkstra, Carel S. Schölten
    Pages 209-215

  14. Back Matter

    Pages 216-222
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Keywords

About this book

This booklet presents a reasonably self-contained theory of predicate trans­ former semantics. Predicate transformers were introduced by one of us (EWD) as a means for defining programming language semantics in a way that would directly support the systematic development of programs from their formal specifications. They met their original goal, but as time went on and program derivation became a more and more formal activity, their informal introduction and the fact that many of their properties had never been proved became more and more unsatisfactory. And so did the original exclusion of unbounded nondeterminacy. In 1982 we started to remedy these shortcomings. This little monograph is a result of that work. A possible -and even likely- criticism is that anyone sufficiently versed in lattice theory can easily derive all of our results himself. That criticism would be correct but somewhat beside the point. The first remark is that the average book on lattice theory is several times fatter (and probably less self­ contained) than this booklet. The second remark is that the predicate transformer semantics provided only one of the reasons for going through the pains of publication.

Authors and Affiliations

  • University of Texas at Austin, Austin, USA

    Edsger W. Dijkstra

  • Beekbergen, The Netherlands

    Carel S. Scholten

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Predicate Calculus and Program Semantics

  • Authors: Edsger W. Dijkstra, Carel S. Scholten

  • Series Title: Monographs in Computer Science

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-3228-5

  • Publisher: Springer New York, NY

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

  • Copyright Information: Springer-Verlag New York Inc. 1990

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-1-4612-7924-2Published: 26 September 2011

  • eBook ISBN: 978-1-4612-3228-5Published: 06 December 2012

  • Series ISSN: 0172-603X

  • Series E-ISSN: 2512-5486

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XI, 220

  • Topics: Logics and Meanings of Programs, Mathematical Logic and Formal Languages

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