Guarded Command Language

Article summary

The Guarded Command Language (GCL) is a programming language defined by Edsger Dijkstra for predicate transformer semantics in EWD472. It combines programming concepts in a compact way. It makes it easier to develop a program and its proof hand-in-hand, with the proof ideas leading the way; moreover, parts of a program can actually be calculated. An important property of GCL is nondeterminism. For example, in the if-statement, several alternatives may be true, and the choice is made at runtime, when the if-statement is executed. This frees the programmer from having to make unnecessary choices and is an aid in the formal development of programs. GCL includes the multiple assignment statement. For example, execution of the statement is done by first evaluating the righthand side values and then storing them in the lefthand variables. Thus, this statement swaps the values of and . The following books discuss the development of programs using GCL: * * * * *

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