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On the use of history variables

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Summary

This paper is a response to a suggestion that the use of history variables in proofs of the correctness of programs is unnecessary. It is argued that the use of history or ghost variables can be of benefit in improving the clarity of some proofs; that without their use some proofs require programming techniques which are at variance with the widely-accepted tenets of structured programming and that for some proofs of correctness their use is unavoidable.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, The Queen's University of Belfast, BT7 1NN, Belfast, Northern Ireland

    M. Clint

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  1. M. Clint
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Clint, M. On the use of history variables. Acta Informatica 16, 15–30 (1981). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00289587

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00289587

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