A Discipline for Loop Construction.

Abstract

A discipline for loop construction is presented which is based on the concept of a well-formed postcondition. A well-formed postcondition is seen to have an implicit logical structure which is made explicit by appropriate variable binding. This variable binding identifies the loop invariant and a determinate. Loops are then constructed by first identifying the weakest iterative mechanism capable of establishing the postcondition. Subsequent development proceeds by way of inductive stepwise refinement. This discipline for loop construction leads naturally to a scheme for classifying loop mechanisms. It also leads to a proposal for a week loop grammar (not in principle unlike Chomsky's phrase structure grammar) which helps to make explicit semantically important components of a loop structure. The grammar is enhanced by a set of fundamental transformation rules. (Author)

Open PDF

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 30, 1983
Accession Number
ADA165893

Entities

People

  • R. G. Dromey

Organizations

  • University of Wollongong

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • C4I
  • Materials and Manufacturing Processes

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Computations
  • Computer Programming
  • Computer Science
  • Computers
  • Construction
  • Formal Languages
  • Grammars
  • Language
  • Linguistics
  • Natural Languages
  • Numbers
  • Phrase Structure Grammars
  • Square Roots
  • Structured Programming
  • Trees (Data Structures)
  • Two Dimensional
  • Universities

Readers

  • Computational Linguistics
  • Control Systems Engineering.
  • Mathematical Modeling and Probability Theory.