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| R.A. DeMillo, R.J. Lipton, "Defining Software by Continuous, Smooth Functions," IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, vol. 17, no. 4, pp. 383-384, April, 1991. | |||
| BibTex | x | ||
| @article{ 10.1109/32.90437, author = {R.A. DeMillo and R.J. Lipton}, title = {Defining Software by Continuous, Smooth Functions}, journal ={IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering}, volume = {17}, number = {4}, issn = {0098-5589}, year = {1991}, pages = {383-384}, doi = {http://doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/32.90437}, publisher = {IEEE Computer Society}, address = {Los Alamitos, CA, USA}, } | |||
| RefWorks Procite/RefMan/Endnote | x | ||
| TY - JOUR JO - IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering TI - Defining Software by Continuous, Smooth Functions IS - 4 SN - 0098-5589 SP383 EP384 EPD - 383-384 A1 - R.A. DeMillo, A1 - R.J. Lipton, PY - 1991 KW - software system; discrete state transition function; virtual machine; continuous smooth function; legal states; complexity; classical analysis; software engineering; computational complexity; software engineering VL - 17 JA - IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering ER - | |||
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.
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