A methodology for synthesis of recursive functional programs

  • Authors:

  • Debasish Banerjee

  • Affiliations:

  • Jadavpur Univ., Calcutta, India

  • Venue:
  • ACM Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems (TOPLAS)
  • Year:
  • 1987

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Abstract

John Backus introduced the Functional Programming (FP) system, the variable-free applicative system having reduction semantics. Backus has also introduced a unique expansion technique for reasoning about a class of recursive FP programs. As a natural outgrowth of this expansion technique, an FP program synthesis methodology is described in this paper.The methodology synthesizes recursive FP programs of the form f = p →, q; E(f . h) from their preformulated case-by-case descriptions, which in turn come from given input-output example specifications. After explaining the methodology informally, formalization in the form of a definition and a synthesis theorem is introduced. A sufficient condition for the functional form E, for successful synthesis under the present methodology, is obtained structurally. Several illustrative examples of synthesis are also included.