System design from provably correct constructs
by James Martin · first published 1984
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…https://users.ece.cmu.edu/~koopman/pubs/koopman14_toyota_ua_... [2] Nearly nobody noticed. I know it sounds crazy but it's true: There's a simple, easy method to develop bug-free software. James Martin wrote it up in a book "System design from provably correct constructs: the beginnings of true software engineering." in 1985. That's probably the best source if anyone wants to read up on it. [3] A programmer in language or framework A who cannot or will not learn language…
on “Why not program right?” ↗…first coined the term "Software Engineering". I'm not going to go into it further now, suffice it to say if you are typing text into a text editor to write code you are doing it wrong. There's a book, "System Design from Provably-Correct Constructs" by James Martin, that presents Hamilton's method if you're interested. > The whole point of the original article is that, today, the only thing keeping planes in the air is fault tolerance and lots…
…where he's coming from, but "he doesn't get it" IMO. He misses the point (or maybe HOS sucked compared to what was later described in Martin's book...) - - - - FWIW, James Martin went on to write "System Design from Provably Correct Constructs: The Beginnings of True Software Engineering" which is where I learned about all this. I don't actually know much about HOS specifically, only what's in that book. If you're interested that's the thing…
on “The challenges of teaching software engineering” ↗You might like "System design from provably correct constructs", it's written by James Martin but it's presenting the work of Margaret Hamilton. She developed the ideas while working on Apollo 11 https://archive.org/details/systemdesignfrom00mart In modern terms…
on “3-Lisp: an infinite tower of meta-circular interpreters” ↗I had to dig it up out of my order history for you. Here is the HOS book. I've included a preview link that shows the Table of Contents. System Design from Provably Correct Constructs: The Beginnings of True Software Engineering by James Martin https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/013881483X/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b... https://archive.org/details/systemdesignfrom00mart/page/n3/m... Now, if you…
on “How fuzz testing was invented (2008)” ↗…Phobia Cure" algorithm, among many others.) The capability to reprogram belief structures engenders a change of self-definition even if you don't use it. "Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid" "System design from provably correct constructs : the beginnings of true software engineering" about Dr. M. Hamilton's Higher Order Software. Everything by Robert Anton Wilson. (That's not a title, I mean everything he wrote.)
on “Ask HN: What books have made the biggest impact on your mental models?” ↗Ah! Gold! I found Hamilton's work described in a book “System Design from Provably Correct Constructs” https://archive.org/details/systemdesignfrom00mart many years ago. You build something like an Abstract Syntax Tree using operations that preserve certain correctness properties, thus eliminating many…
on “Margaret Hamilton oral history (2017)” ↗…Order Software" or HOS) and attempted to market it. It was panned by e.g. the Navy and Dijkstra, and languishes in obscurity to this day. The basic details of the system are described in a book called "System design from provably correct constructs: the beginnings of true software engineering" by James Martin (he mentions Hamilton in the references.) In modern terms you work directly with an AST and the UI only permits modifications by operations…
on “The challenges of teaching software engineering” ↗…I was in the middle of implementing type-inference when I was bushwhacked by compilers in Prolog. The original thing that led me to all this was Dr. Margaret Hamilton's Higher Order Software. (See "System Design from Provably Correct Constructs: the beginnings of true software engineering" James Martin) Long story short, adding type-inference to Joy makes it easy to derive correct software. (This used to be a novel thing to say.) If you want…
on “ColorForth (2009)” ↗…https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Hamilton_(scientist) Wikipedia reads 'She is one of the people credited with coining the term "software engineering".' but doesn't link to anything referencing earlier uses of the term. Whatever. [3] "System Design from Provably Correct Constructs: The Beginnings of True Software Engineering" by James Martin https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3575584-system-design-fr... https://archive.org/details/systemdesignfrom00mart Irritatingly enough, he…
on “Dijkstra Archive (1930-2002)” ↗…https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Hamilton_%28scientist... Crapped on by Dijkstra himself: https://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/EWD/ewd08xx/EWD852.PDF Written up by James Martin (without proper attribution in my opinion) in "System design from provably correct constructs : the beginnings of true software engineering": https://archive.org/details/systemdesignfrom00mart/mode/2up See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Systems_Language
on “Don't write bugs” ↗"System design from provably correct constructs" by James Martin, although he doesn't properly credit Hamilton in my opinion: https://archive.org/details/systemdesignfrom00mart
on “Gerald Sussman: Programming is (should be) fun (2022) [video]” ↗Long ago I found a copy of "System Design from Provably Correct Constructs" at the Seattle public library. I didn't realize it at the time but I now know that it is basically a presentation of Dr. Margaret Hamilton's Higher-Order Software ideas. In essence it's a thin AST…
on “Ask HN: Have you created a programming language and why?” ↗Is HOS what it seems? I read about it years ago in "System Design from Provably Correct Constructs". It seems like it should revolutionize software development (and incidentally put most programmers out of business) but that it somehow just never gets "traction" beyond certain markets/customers?
on “Margaret Hamilton, lead software engineer, Project Apollo” ↗…Software" distilled from her experience writing the code for the Apollo 11 mission.[0] Unfortunately, her insights have been largely ignored. I first heard about it twenty years ago in a book called "System Design from Provably Correct Constructs" (which, oddly enough, doesn't mention Hamilton outside of a few references in the back.) In modern terms, programs in HOS are developed by the direct elaboration of the Abstract Syntax Tree (like Lisp…
on “Lost in Math” ↗