Programming and Mathematical Method

The Summer School in Marktoberdorf 1990 had as its overall theme the development of programs as an activity that can be carried out based on and supported by a mathematical method. In particular mathematical methods for the development of programs as parts of distributed systems were included. Mathematical programming methods are a very important topic for which a lot of research in recent years has been carried out. In the Marktoberdorf Summer School outstanding scientists lectured on mathematical programming methods. The lectures centred around logical and functional calculi for the specification, refinement, verification of programs and program systems. Some extremely remarkable examples were given. Looking at these examples it becomes clear that proper research and teaching in the area of program methodology should always show its value by being applied at least to small examples or case studies. It is one of the problems of computing science that examples and case studies have to be short and small to be lJresentable in lectures and papers of moderate size. However, even small examples can tell a lot about the tractability and adequacy of methods and being able to treat small examples does at least prove that the method can be applied in modest ways. Furthermore it demonstrates to some extent the notational and calculational overhead of applying formal methods.