Lecture: Formal Methods and Functional Programming

Bachelor Course 252-0058-00L, Spring Semester 2009

Announcements

Overview

Lecturers: Prof. Dr. David Basin and Prof. Dr. Peter Müller

Classes: Tue 9-12, HG E 7

Exercises:

• Wed 14-16
  
  • HG D7.2 (Thai Son Hoang)
• Fri 8-10
  • IFW A 32.1 (Thai Son Hoang)
  • IFW B 42 (Mohammad Torabi Dashti)
  • IFW C 42 (Felix Klaedtke)

Credits: 6

Homework is optional, but highly recommended. There will be a midterm and a final exam. If somebody fails the course, a repetition exam consisting of new exams for both parts can be taken.

Exams:

• Midterm: Friday, 3.4.2009, 08:00 - 10:00
• Final: Monday, 8.6.2009, 10:00 - 12:00
• Repetition: Saturday, 12.9.2009

Requirements: none

Language: English

Description:

In this course, participants will learn about new ways of specifying, reasoning about, and developing programs and computer systems. Our objective is to help students raise their level of abstraction in modeling and implementing systems.

The first part of the course will focus on designing and reasoning about functional programs. Functional programs are mathematical expressions that are evaluated and reasoned about much like ordinary mathematical functions. As a result, these expressions are simple to analyze and compose to implement large-scale programs. We will cover the mathematical foundations of functional programming, the lambda calculus, as well as higher-order programming, typing, and proofs of correctness.

The second part of the course will focus on deductive and algorithmic validation of programs modeled as transition systems. As an example of deductive verification, students will learn how to formalize the semantics of imperative programming languages and how to use a formal semantics to prove properties of languages and programs. As an example of algorithmic validation, the course will introduce model checking and apply it to programs and program designs.

Resources

Literature for the first part:

• O'Sullivan, Stuart, Goerzen. Real World Haskell, O'Reilly, 2008 (full version online)
  
• Graham Hutton. Programming in Haskell. Cambridge University Press. 2007
  
• Simon Thompson. Haskell: The Craft of Functional Programming. Addison-Wesley, 1996

Literature for the second part:

• Hanne Riis Nielson and Flemming Nielson. Semantics with Applications: A Formal Introduction. Wiley, 1992. (full version online)
  
• Christel Baier and Joost-Pieter Katoen. Principles of Model Checking. MIT Press, 2008.

Additional literature for interested students:

• Chris Okasaki. Purely Functional Data Structures. Cambridge University Press, 1998. (partially online)
  
• Harold Abelson and Gerald Jay Sussman with Julie Sussman. Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs. MIT Press, 1996. (full version online)

Course Material: here