catflap.org Online Dictionary Query

  axiomatic semantics
       
           A set of assertions about properties of a system and
          how they are effected by program execution.  The axiomatic
          semantics of a program could include pre- and post-conditions
          for operations.  In particular if you view the program as a
          state transformer (or collection of state transformers), the
          axiomatic semantics is a set of invariants on the state which
          the state transformer satisfies.
       
          E.g. for a function with the type:
       
          	sort_list :: [T] -> [T]
       
          we might give the precondition that the argument of the
          function is a list, and a postcondition that the return value
          is a list that is sorted.
       
          One interesting use of axiomatic semantics is to have a
          language that has a finitely computable sublanguage that is
          used for specifying pre and post conditions, and then have the
          compiler prove that the program will satisfy those conditions.
       
          See also operational semantics, denotational semantics.
       
          (1995-11-09)