Theories of programming: Top-down and bottom-up and meeting in the middle (Q4493873)

C.A.R. Hoare is one of the most authoritative voices in theoretical Computer Science. He is the author of the seminal work CSP (Communicating Sequential Processes) which is an important landmark in the theory of concurrent computing. Any article of C.A.R. Hoare about the general theory of programming can not be anything else than evangelical word revealed to the hordes of young researches in parallel and concurrent computing. Indeed, this article is an illuminating analysis of the current trends and approaches in the theory of programming. The presentation is structured along the duality top-down, bottom-up exemplified by elements of pi calculus, CSP and denotational semantics. The article concludes with the suggestion for a third way, named here as the middle approach for the development of programming theory. The new theory should be based on an initial collection of algebraic laws acting as the underlying semantics of a programming language and developing this collection outwards in all directions. The author does not develop such a theory, he just exposes his view on the existing programming theories and advocates for a unifying approach. For the entire collection see [Zbl 0929.00076].