An Abstract Contract Theory for Programs with Procedures

Abstract When developing complex software and systems, contracts provide a means for controlling the complexity by dividing responsibilities among components of system in hierarchical fashion. In specific application areas, dedicated contract theories formalise notion operations on manner that supports best development systems area. At other end, meta-theories attempt to systematic view various axiomatising their desired properties. However, there exists noticeable gap between most well-known meta-theory Benveniste et al. [5], which focuses design embedded cyber-physical established way using when general software, following Meyer’s design-by-contract methodology [18]. core this appears be procedure : while it is central unit composition development, does not suggest an obvious treating procedures as components. paper, we first step towards theory takes basic building block, at same time instantiation meta-theory. To propose abstract sequential programming languages with procedures, based denotational semantics . We show that, one hand, specification Hoare logic , procedure-modular verification, can cast naturally framework our theory. On also fulfil axioms way, give further evidence utility meta-theory, prepare ground combining other, already existing instantiations.