Symbolic evaluation of lisp functions with side effects for verification

Authors:
Dennis de Champeaux;Jos de Bruin
Affiliations:
Bedrijfsinformatica, Faculty of Economics, University of Amsterdam;Bedrijfsinformatica, Faculty of Economics, University of Amsterdam
Venue:
IJCAI'81 Proceedings of the 7th international joint conference on Artificial intelligence - Volume 1
Year:
1981

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Abstract

In this paper we present a symbolic evaluator of LISP functions. It can handle data-altering functions of the RPLACA type, i. e. functions that change one datastructure by replacing parts of it by other structures that will themselves not be changed further, at least not permanently. The state description language uses first-order predicate calculus. It is argued that symbolic evaluation in terms of this language, although theoretically adequate, is not feasible in general, since it may require extremely complicated specifications for real-life functions with side effects. Examples are given of the specifications needed to verify several versions of SUBSTAD, a non-copying SUBST.