Notes on Science of Program Ch1: Propositions

Basic concepts:

1. state: a *function* from a set of identifiers to the set of values T and F;

e.g: {(identifier,boolean)} form:

given set {(a,T),(bc,F),(yl,T)}, s(a) denotes value of the function s(x) when x is a, so s(a)=T;

2. well-defined proposition: Proposition e is well-defined in state s if each identifier in e is associated with either T or F in state s

e.g: given state s={(b，T), (c,F)}

proposition 1: (b or c);

propostision 2: (b or d);

prop1 is well-defined because I can find the corresponding value in state s for each identifier 

prop2 is not because I cannot find infomation about identifier d in the given state s. 

 

3. If proposition e is well-defined, then recursively evaluating a function will not change its value;

e.g: s(e) will not change its value if e is composed of another function, by following the corresponding rules, you will always get the same result;

 

Precedence Rules for Operators: nothing interesting...

Tautologies: a propostion that is true in every state in whch it is well-defined

e.g: proposition(b or not b) is a tautology because if b is T, (T or F) is T, if b is F, (F or T) is still T so it is always true as long as it is well-defined in the states. (it is obviously not a taurology if b does not have a corresponding value in the state, in that case, b is not well-defined in that specific state.)

Stronger and Weaker Propositions:

prop b is weaker than c if c implies b, whereas c is stronger than b. i.e: stronger means more restrictions were made. 

e.g: Let c=I'm running b=I'm alive  then c implies b, apparently, b has much weaker restrictions than c

A tautology is therefore, the weakest as it has no retrictions at all (always true for any well-defined states)