Reliable control: trace, test and explain automation

Bring with you: Add, subtract, multiply and divide ordinary numbers; compare numbers and read labelled values.

I want to reason about simple automated programs and tell the difference between a requested action and a valid, confirmed result.

Follow a program from its inputs to a confirmed result, and find where its guarantees stop.

By the end, you can…

• Follow a calculation through functions with clear inputs and returned results.
• Use a failing example and a trace to choose a targeted program repair.
• Check whether a list-processing program meets its complete stated requirement.
• Decide whether a requested action satisfies every stated permission.
• Tell whether a reading is fresh enough for a decision without confusing a screen refresh with a new observation.
• Explain whether a simulated action was permitted and actually confirmed, including what remains unknown.
• Diagnose order-dependent test evidence caused by shared mutable setup and choose an isolated fixture.
• Use a stated left-to-right short-circuit rule to protect a partial operation and distinguish truth from safe evaluation order.
• Trace a bounded recursive function using a base case, a decreasing input and pending returned work.
• Apply an exclusive mode selector and a defined mode-change policy without combining requests from inactive sources.
• Trace a consecutive-sample input filter that resets on contradiction and distinguish stable confirmation from total positive samples.
• Detect a circular resource wait and evaluate a shared acquisition order without claiming that deadlock freedom implies fairness.

For another Course

• Deploying physical machinery or providing equipment safety certification.
• A particular programming language, continuous-control mathematics or distributed-systems completeness proofs.