Refinement calculus

The Refinement Calculus is a formalized approach to stepwise refinement for program construction. The required behaviour of the final executable program is specified as an abstract and perhaps non-executable "program", which is then refined by a series of correctness-preserving transformations into an efficiently executable program.

Proponents include Ralph-Johan Back, who originated the approach in his 1978 PhD thesis On the Correctness of Refinement Steps in Program Development, and Carroll Morgan, especially with his book Programming from Specifications (Prentice Hall, 2nd edition, 1994, ISBN 0-13-123274-6).

External links

• Refinement Calculus information
• Refinement Calculus tutorial