KIDS: a semiautomatic program development system

The Kestrel Interactive Development System (KIDS), which provides automated support for the development of correct and efficient programs from formal specifications, is described. The system has components for performing algorithm design, deductive inference, program simplification, partial evaluati...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:IEEE transactions on software engineering Vol. 16; no. 9; pp. 1024 - 1043
Main Author: Smith, D.R.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: New York, NY IEEE 01.09.1990
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
IEEE Computer Society
Subjects:
Algorithm design and analysis
Algorithms
Applied sciences
Automatic programming
Automation
Computer programming
Computer science; control theory; systems
Data structures
Design optimization
Environmental economics
Exact sciences and technology
Finite difference methods
Formal specifications
Inference algorithms
Interactive
Knowledge
Language
Optimization
Optimization techniques
Performance evaluation
Software
Software engineering
Specifications
Syntax
Systems development
Theory
Software tool
Automatic programming
Software development
Formalization
Program design
Program specification
Software engineering
ISSN:0098-5589, 1939-3520
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:The Kestrel Interactive Development System (KIDS), which provides automated support for the development of correct and efficient programs from formal specifications, is described. The system has components for performing algorithm design, deductive inference, program simplification, partial evaluation, finite differencing optimizations, data type refinement, compilation, and other development operations. Although their application is interactive, all of the KIDS operations are automatic except the algorithm design tactics, which require some interaction at present. Dozens of programs have been derived using the system, and it is believed that KIDS could be developed to the point where it becomes economical to use for routine programming. To illustrate the use of KIDS, the author traces the derivation of an algorithm for enumerating solutions to the k-queens problem. The initial algorithm that KIDS designed takes about 60 minutes on a SUN-4/110 to find all 92 solutions to the 8-queens problem instance. The final optimized version finds the same solutions in under one second.< >
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ISSN:0098-5589
1939-3520
DOI:10.1109/32.58788