An Iterator Construct for the Refinement Calculus

Abstract

This paper concerns the introduction of an iterator into the refinement calculus. The construct is based on concepts from functional programming, and the work gives an interesting example of cross-fertilisation between the functional and imperative programming worlds. Specifically, the iterator construct it..ti uses the idea of a catamorphism - the unique homomorphism from an initial algebra. The datatype for which the iterator is to be defined is considered as an initial algebra of an appropriate functor. The it..ti construct is formally defined as a recursive procedure, and it is shown that, if the value to be obtained by an iteration can be expressed as a catamorphism, then the it..ti construct provides a very natural implementation. Examples are given to show typical uses of the new construct.

Contributors

Steve King

Carroll Morgan

Conference

Publication date: July 2000

Publication date (Print): July 2000

Pages: 1-17

Affiliations

Department of Computer Science

University of York

Heslington, York YO10 5DD, UK

School of Computer Science and Engineering

University of New South Wales

Sydney 2052, Australia

Article

DOI: 10.14236/ewic/IWFM2000.3

Copyright statement: © Steve King et al. Published by BCS Learning and Development Ltd. 4th Irish Workshop on Formal Methods

License:

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Conference name: 4th Irish Workshop on Formal Methods

Conference acronym: IWFM

Conference number: 4

Conference location: Maynooth, Ireland

Conference date: 5th-6th July 2000

Conference sponsor: Electronic Workshops in Computing (eWiC)

Conference theme: Formal Methods

Product

Product Information: 1477-9358BCS Learning & Development

Self URI (article page): https://www.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.14236/ewic/IWFM2000.3

Self URI (journal page): https://ewic.bcs.org/

Categories

Series title: Electronic Workshops in Computing