DocumentCode
1442813
Title
Defining software by continuous, smooth functions
Author
Demillo, Richard A. ; Lipton, Richard J.
Author_Institution
Dept. of Comput. Sci., Purdue Univ., West Lafayette, IN, USA
Volume
17
Issue
4
fYear
1991
fDate
4/1/1991 12:00:00 AM
Firstpage
383
Lastpage
384
Abstract
A simple proof is given, showing that for every operational description of a software system expressed as a discrete state transition function on a virtual machine, there is a continuous smooth function on the reals that agrees with the state transition function on all legal states and has exactly the same complexity. It is suggested that an implication of this result is that there is no reason, in principle, that the methods of classical analysis cannot be used in software engineering
Keywords
computational complexity; software engineering; classical analysis; complexity; continuous smooth function; discrete state transition function; legal states; software engineering; software system; virtual machine; Control systems; Law; Legal factors; Logic; Mathematical analysis; Mathematics; Software engineering; Software systems; State-space methods; Virtual machining;
fLanguage
English
Journal_Title
Software Engineering, IEEE Transactions on
Publisher
ieee
ISSN
0098-5589
Type
jour
DOI
10.1109/32.90437
Filename
90437
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