On Propositional Program Equivalence (extended abstract)

Abstract

General program equivalence is undecidable. However, if we abstract away the semantics of statements, then this problem becomes not just decidable, but practically feasible. For instance, a program of the form "if $b$ then $e$ else $f$" should be equivalent to "if not $b$ then $f$ else $e$" - no matter what $b$, $e$ and $f$ are. This kind of equivalence is known as propositional equivalence. In this extended abstract, we discuss recent developments in propositional program equivalence from the perspective of (Guarded) Kleene Algebra with Tests, or (G)KAT.

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