Subject: SEN1 Meeting tomorrow: Jan van Eijck From: Bas Basten To: sen1-list Date: Wed, 19 Oct 2011 15:22:26 +0200 (CEST) Dear all, At tomorrow's SEN1 Meeting, Jan will give the following talk: Purely Functional Algorithm Specification Jan van Eijck An algorithm is an effective method expressed as a list of instructions describing a computation for calculating a result. Algorithms have to be written in human readable form, either using pseudocode (natural language looking like executable code), a high level specification language like Dijkstra's Guarded Command Language, or an executable formal specification formalism such as Z. We will give an easy purely functional implementation of the Guarded Command Language, and demonstrate how this can be used for specifying (executable) algorithms, and for automated testing of Hoare correctness statements about these algorithms. The small extension of Haskell that we will present and discuss can be viewed as a domain specific language for algorithm specification and testing. Inspiration for this was the recent talk by Leslie Lamport on executable algorithm specification languages, plus Edsger W. Dijkstra, "EWD472: Guarded commands, non-determinacy and formal derivation of programs." Instead of formal program derivation, we demonstrate test automation of Hoare style assertions. Note: this is an expanded and revised version of an earlier SEN1 presentation. ---- We start as usual at 10am in room L016. Hope to see you all there! Cheers, Bas