Year: 1974
Type: conference-paper
Abstract: "A proof of correctness guarantees that a program will run correctly every time it is executed." That statement is not necessarily true. Suppose, for sake of concreteness, that a valid proof of a Fortran program has been constructed. When this program was proved, it most likely was proved in isolation from the other software components which ultimately will be involved in actually making the program run. So, even though we have proved the Fortran program, one of these other components, or the system hardware, may malfunction causing the actual machine language program that is executed to produce an error. These comments are not an argument against proving programs at the Fortran level, but rather an indication of the eventual need for a completely proved computing system.
Author: Donald I. Good
Institution: The University of Texas at Austin
Language: English
Subfield: Software
Field: Computer Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W2067018501