Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
1991-05-01
Technical Report Number
WUCS-91-1
Abstract
Reliability, defined as the guarantee that a program satisfies its specifications, is an important aspect of many applications for which rule-based expert systems are suited. Verification refer to the process used to determine the reliability of the rule-based program. Because past approaches to verification are informal, guarantees of reliability cannot fully be made without severely restricting the system. On the other hand, by constructing formal specifications for a program and showing the program satisfies those specifications, guarantees of reliability can be made. This paper presents an assertional approach to the verification of rule-based programs. The proof logical needed for verification is adopted from one already in use by researchers in concurrent programming. The approach involves using a language called Swarm, and requires one to express program specifications as assertions over the Swarm representation of the program. Among models the employ rule-based notation, Swarm is the first to have an axiomatic proof logic.
Recommended Citation
Gamble, Rose F.; Roman, Gruia-Catalin; Ball, William E.; and Cunningham, H. Conrad, "Applying Formal Verification Methods to Pure Rule-Based Programs" Report Number: WUCS-91-1 (1991). All Computer Science and Engineering Research.
https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/cse_research/628
Comments
Permanent URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.7936/K7DJ5D1S