Why There is no General Solution to the Problem of Software Verification

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Foundations of Science 25 (3):541-557 (2020)
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Abstract

How can we be certain that software is reliable? Is there any method that can verify the correctness of software for all cases of interest? Computer scientists and software engineers have informally assumed that there is no fully general solution to the verification problem. In this paper, we survey approaches to the problem of software verification and offer a new proof for why there can be no general solution.

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10.1007/s10699-019-09611-w

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John Symons
University of Kansas

Citations of this work

Software engineering standards for epidemiological models.Jack K. Horner & John F. Symons - 2020 - History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 42 (4):1-24.

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References found in this work

On Computable Numbers, with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem.Alan Turing - 1936 - Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society 42 (1):230-265.
In defense of proper functions.Ruth Millikan - 1989 - Philosophy of Science 56 (June):288-302.
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Computability and Logic.George S. Boolos, John P. Burgess & Richard C. Jeffrey - 2003 - Bulletin of Symbolic Logic 9 (4):520-521.

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