Abstract computability and algebraic specification

  • Authors:
  • J. V. Tucker;J. I. Zucker

  • Affiliations:
  • University of Wales, Swansea, Wales;McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

  • Venue:
  • ACM Transactions on Computational Logic (TOCL)
  • Year:
  • 2002

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Abstract

Abstract computable functions are defined by abstract finitedeterministic algorithms on many-sorted algebras. We show thatthere exist finite universal algebraic specifications that specifyuniquely (up to isomorphism) (i) all abstract computable functionson any many-sorted algebra; (ii) all functions effectivelyapproximable by abstract computable functions on any metricalgebra. We show that there exist universal algebraicspecifications for all the classically computable functions on theset ℝ of real numbers. The algebraic specifications used aremainly bounded universal equations and conditional equations. Weinvestigate the initial algebra semantics of these specifications,and derive situations where algebraic specifications preciselydefine the computable functions.