The Derivation of Compositional Programs

Abstract

This paper proposes a parallel programming notation and a method of reasoning about programs with the following characteristics: (1) Parallel Composition The notation provides different forms of interfaces between processes; the more restrictive the interface, the simpler the proofs of process composition. A flexible interface is that of cooperating processes with a shared address space; proofs of programs that use this interface are based on non-interference [OG76] and temporal logic [Pnu81,CM88, Lam9l]. We also propose more restrictive interfaces and specifications that allow us to use the following specificattion rule: the strongest specification of a parallel composition of processes is the conjunction of the strongest specifications of its components. This rule is helpful in deriving parallel programs. (2) Determinism A process that does not use certain primitives of the notation is guaranteed to be deterministic. Programmers who wish to prove that their programs are deterministic are relieved of this proof obligation if they restrict their programs to a certain subset of the primitives.