Guarded commands, nondeterminacy and formal derivation of programs

The work

AuthorsEdsger W. Dijkstra
Typearticle
Year1975
Citekeydijkstra1975guarded

Where it appeared

Published inCommunications of the ACM
PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery
Volume18
Issue8
Pages453--457

Identifiers

DOI10.1145/360933.360975
OpenAlexW2066210260

Access

Free full texthttps://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/360933.360975
Landing pagehttps://doi.org/10.1145/360933.360975

Abstract

So-called "guarded commands" are introduced as a building block for alternative and repetitive constructs that allow nondeterministic program components for which at least the activity evoked, but possibly even the final state, is not necessarily uniquely determined by the initial state. For the formal derivation of programs expressed in terms of these constructs, a calculus will be be shown.

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Cite it as

@article{dijkstra1975guarded,
  title        = {Guarded commands, nondeterminacy and formal derivation of programs},
  author       = {Edsger W. Dijkstra},
  year         = {1975},
  journal      = {Communications of the ACM},
  volume       = {18},
  number       = {8},
  pages        = {453--457},
  publisher    = {Association for Computing Machinery},
  doi          = {10.1145/360933.360975},
}

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