Derivation of Veriication Rules for C from Operational Deenitions

While a low-level, operational deenition of a language's semantics is a straightforward way of specifying the behaviour of programs written in that language, it is not necessarily very suitable for formal activities such as program veriication. This is clearly the case with languages such as C, where the language deenition is complicated by much tedious detail. However, the work described here demonstrates that a necessarily complicated semantics for C can still be used as the basis for the generation of \axiomatic" style rules. These can then be used to support veriication work in a way that is both familiar and not overly complex.