CS 641 meeting -*- Outline -*-

* Introduction
	write the name of the course on the board.

** Who
	introduce self and meet everyone
	have them write names on board

** motivation for refinement calculus (course spec)

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        WHY REFINEMENT CALCULUS?

Proving programs correct is
 - important
     + safety critical systems
     + business critical systems
     + teaching, research
 - impossible, in general

Open problems:
 - reasoning about higher-order code
    + procedural abstractions
    + callbacks
 - reasoning about concurrency
 - reasoning about OOP, AOP
 - reasoning about components
 - reasoning about maintenance,
      improvement, optimization

Wide spectrum language
  - specifications and
  - programs

Want "lightweight" formalisms
  - elegant theory
  - easy for programmers to understand

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*** more abstract semantic technique
	seeing others using wp semantics, refinement calculus
		impressed by brevity compared to denotational,
		makes others able to publish faster, more often
		easier to understand because more abstract
*** more easily applied
	closely related to
		programming, verification,
		spec. languages.
	want to use it to give semantics to JML
	verification gives insight into safe coding practices
	conversely, what can be verified might make good language design
		Euclid, Alphard
		want eventually to do that for OOP, AOP
*** it's new for me
	want to see how this compares to more standard

        It's also fairly new for the community as a whole,
        although it is gaining currency

     Q: what about the material interests you?

** Plan of course (syllabus)
	overview, motivation and a bit of history
		week 1
	mathematical background: higher-order logic, predicates, etc.
		weeks 2-6
	rest of book, as far as we can go...
             statements, nondeterminism, iteration,
		weeks 7-15
	summary and evaluation at the end

	Q: Would you make any changes to the plan?

** Objectives
*** meta
        - get you to think critically
                Q: What kind of questions should you be asking?
                        limitations? utility?
        - teach you some semantics and formal methods
*** normal
    In one sentence, the main objective is that you will be able to:
    - design a refinement calculus for a small programming language,
    - examine its quality using mathematical techniques, and
    - use it to design and prove correct small programs.

    Focus on sequential programs, but allow nondeterminism.

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        OBJECTIVES

- Explain the goals of the refinement
  calculus
- How to use it in semantics
- Its advantages, disadvantages, limits

- Judge and improve the quality
  of refinement calculus semantics

- Explain and generalize the its ideas
  from sequential and nondeterministic
  programs
     
- Use the refinement calculus to calculate
  correct implementations
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** How I'll run the course

*** overview
	informal and friendly, I'm going to try not to lecture too much
	lecture meetings: get old homework back (you keep it),
				discuss homework, if any (some put on board),
				hand in homework
				discuss next topic
	homework: you'll do a term project, perhaps get a paper out of it.
                term project will be some extension of the ideas,
                     esp. to OOP, AOP, components, security, etc.
                Can work alone or with others.

	Q: would you like to work on some kind of term project like these?

	grading: based on evidence, participation, project, final oral exam
			I'll give comments on homework, grades if you want them
	pace: we'll try to uncover and explore carefully
			want deep understanding of that material (semantics)
		for homework, we'll be flexible,

*** red tape
	prerequisites (ok to not have 531 this offering, but need 541 or math)
	books: Back and von Wright's book on reserve
		also other books on using refinement calculus are on reserve

** summary
	Q: any other questions about the course?