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Software synthesis procedures

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Philippe SuterAuthors Info & Claims

Communications of the ACM, Volume 55, Issue 2

Pages 103 - 111

https://doi.org/10.1145/2076450.2076472

Published: 01 February 2012 Publication History

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Abstract

Automated synthesis of program fragments from specifications can make programs easier to write and easier to reason about. To integrate synthesis into programming languages, software synthesis algorithms should behave in a predictable way: they should succeed for a well-defined class of specifications. We propose to systematically generalize decision procedures into synthesis procedures, and use them to compile implicitly specified computations embedded inside functional and imperative programs. Synthesis procedures are predictable, because they are guaranteed to find code that satisfies the specification whenever such code exists. To illustrate our method, we derive synthesis procedures by extending quantifier elimination algorithms for integer arithmetic and set data structures. We then show that an implementation of such synthesis procedures can extend a compiler to support implicit value definitions and advanced pattern matching.

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Cited By

Pailoor SWang YDillig I(2024)Semantic Code Refactoring for Abstract Data TypesProceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages10.1145/36328708:POPL(816-847)Online publication date: 5-Jan-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3632870
Stankovič MBartocci E(2024)Probabilistic Loop Synthesis from Sequences of MomentsQuantitative Evaluation of Systems and Formal Modeling and Analysis of Timed Systems10.1007/978-3-031-68416-6_14(233-248)Online publication date: 10-Sep-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/978-3-031-68416-6_14
Habermehl PHavlena VHečko MHolík LLengál O(2024)Algebraic Reasoning Meets Automata in Solving Linear Integer ArithmeticComputer Aided Verification10.1007/978-3-031-65627-9_3(42-67)Online publication date: 24-Jul-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/978-3-031-65627-9_3
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Index Terms

Software synthesis procedures

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Published In

cover image Communications of the ACM

Communications of the ACM Volume 55, Issue 2

February 2012

111 pages

ISSN:0001-0782

EISSN:1557-7317

DOI:10.1145/2076450

Issue’s Table of Contents

Copyright © 2012 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Publication History

Published: 01 February 2012

Published in CACM Volume 55, Issue 2

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Cited By

Pailoor SWang YDillig I(2024)Semantic Code Refactoring for Abstract Data TypesProceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages10.1145/36328708:POPL(816-847)Online publication date: 5-Jan-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3632870
Stankovič MBartocci E(2024)Probabilistic Loop Synthesis from Sequences of MomentsQuantitative Evaluation of Systems and Formal Modeling and Analysis of Timed Systems10.1007/978-3-031-68416-6_14(233-248)Online publication date: 10-Sep-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/978-3-031-68416-6_14
Habermehl PHavlena VHečko MHolík LLengál O(2024)Algebraic Reasoning Meets Automata in Solving Linear Integer ArithmeticComputer Aided Verification10.1007/978-3-031-65627-9_3(42-67)Online publication date: 24-Jul-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/978-3-031-65627-9_3
Wilhelm R(2022)Principles of Abstract InterpretationFormal Aspects of Computing10.1145/354695334:2(1-3)Online publication date: 19-Sep-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3546953
Archibald BCalder MSevegnani M(2022)Probabilistic BigraphsFormal Aspects of Computing10.1145/354518034:2(1-27)Online publication date: 19-Sep-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3545180
Debbi H(2022)A Debugging Game for Probabilistic ModelsFormal Aspects of Computing10.1145/353642934:2(1-25)Online publication date: 20-Sep-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3536429
Humenberger AAmrollahi DBjørner NKovács L(2022)Algebra-Based Reasoning for Loop SynthesisFormal Aspects of Computing10.1145/352745834:1(1-31)Online publication date: 21-Jul-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3527458
Jones CThomas M(2022)The Development and Deployment of Formal Methods in the UKFormal Aspects of Computing10.1145/352257734:1(1-21)Online publication date: 5-Jul-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3522577
Humenberger AKovács L(2021)Algebra-Based Synthesis of Loops and Their Invariants (Invited Paper)Verification, Model Checking, and Abstract Interpretation10.1007/978-3-030-67067-2_2(17-28)Online publication date: 17-Jan-2021
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/978-3-030-67067-2_2
Iosif RXu X(2019)Alternating Automata Modulo First Order TheoriesComputer Aided Verification10.1007/978-3-030-25543-5_3(43-63)Online publication date: 12-Jul-2019
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