> Has anyone read "The Science of Programming" by David Gries
> (Springer-Verlag
> 1981)?  IIRC, the point of the book was "Proving programs
> correct".  It took
> a mathematical-proof approach to programming.  One would
> create functions
> that acted like an a assert() function.  The one I remember

"Provably correct programming" has been one of the Holy Grails of
programming study for a while. So far, there hasn't been too much
progress, though there has been some interesting work on experimental
languages that support analytical correctness.

> was wp (weakest
> precondition).  Here one would check all inputs and outputs
> and essentially
> place assert() calls to make sure all conditions were met to
> guarantee the
> program worked as advertised.  I don't know if it every
> caught on but this
> conversation reminded me of the topic.

Using ASSERTs to validate assumptions about inputs and initial
conditions is a fundamental technique of pretty much any skilled
developer who has the option.

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