An informal tutorial is presented for program synthesis, with an emphasis on deductive methods. According to this approach, to construct a program meeting a given specification, we prove the existence of an object meeting the specified conditions. The proof is restricted to be sufficiently constructive, in the sense that, in establishing the existence of the desired output, the proof is forced to indicate a computational method for finding it. That method becomes the basis for a program that can be extracted from the proof. The exposition is based on the deductive-tableau system, a theorem-proving framework particularly suitable for program synthesis. The system includes a nonclausal resolution rule, facilities for reasoning about equality, and a well-founded induction rule. INTRODUCTION This is an introduction to program synthesis, the derivation of a program to meet a given specification. It focuses on the deductive approach, in which the derivation task is regarded as a problem of ...

Research in dependent type theories [M-L71a] has, in the past, concentrated on its use in the presentation of theorems and theorem-proving. This thesis is concerned mainly with the exploitation of the computational aspects of type theory for programming, in a context where the properties of programs may readily be specified and established. In particular, it develops technology for programming with dependent inductive families of datatypes and proving those programs correct. It demonstrates the considerable advantage to be gained by indexing data structures with pertinent characteristic information whose soundness is ensured by typechecking, rather than human effort. Type theory traditionally presents safe and terminating computation on inductive datatypes by means of elimination rules which serve as induction principles and, via their associated reduction behaviour, recursion operators [Dyb91]. In the programming language arena, these appear somewhat cumbersome and give rise to unappealing code, complicated by the inevitable interaction between case analysis on dependent types and equational reasoning on their indices which must appear explicitly in the terms. Thierry Coquand’s proposal [Coq92] to equip type theory directly with the kind of

Program transformation is a means to formally develop efficient programs from lucid specifications. A representative sample of the diverse range of program transformation research is classified into several different approaches based upon the motivations for and styles of constructing such formal developments. Individual techniques for supporting construction of developments are also surveyed, and are related to the various approaches.

A theory of recursive definitions has been mechanized in Isabelle's Zermelo-Fraenkel (ZF) set theory. The objective is to support the formalization of particular recursive definitions for use in verification, semantics proofs and other computational reasoning.

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We describe a proof plan that characterises a family of proofs corresponding to the synthesis of recursive functional programs. This plan provides a significant degree of automation in the construction of recursive programs from specifications, together with correctness proofs. This plan makes use of meta-variables to allow successive refinement of the identity of unknowns, and so allows the program and the proof to be developed hand in hand. We illustrate the plan with parts of a substantial example --- the synthesis of a unification algorithm.

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Martin-Löf's Intuitionistic Theory of Types is becoming popular for formal reasoning about computer programs. To handle recursion schemes other than primitive recursion, a theory of well-founded relations is presented. Using primitive recursion over higher types, induction and recursion are formally derived for a large class of well-founded relations. Included are < on natural numbers, and relations formed by inverse images, addition, multiplication, and exponentiation of other relations. The constructions are given in full detail to allow their use in theorem provers for Type Theory, such as Nuprl. The theory is compared with work in the field of ordinal recursion over higher types.

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. There has been developed and implemented an algorithm for the automatic synthesis of therapy plans for complex dynamic systems. This algorithm is the core of some control synthesis module which is embedded in a larger knowledge-based system for control, diagnosis and therapy. There are several applications. The planning algorithm may be understood as an inductive program synthesis procedure. Its fundamentals are introduced and its key ideas are sketched. The dichotomy between executability and consistency is investigated. 1 Motivation and Introduction The main intention of the present paper is to establish a new link between two areas of research: Program Synthesis and Therapy Planning. Thus, the authors wish to advance both areas of research they are active in. For program synthesis, the intended integration may result in new and exciting problems characterized by particular constraints not investigated in the classical approaches, so far. Our approach may widen the view at automat...