A systematic program design method can help developers ensure the correctness and performance of programs while minimizing the development cost. This book describes a method that starts with a clear specification of a computation and derives an efficient implementation by step-wise program analysis and transformations. The method applies to problems specified in imperative, database, functional, logic and object-oriented programming languages with different data, control and module abstractions. Designed for courses or self-study, this book includes numerous exercises and examples that require minimal computer science background, making it accessible to novices. Experienced practitioners and researchers will appreciate the detailed examples in a wide range of application areas including hardware design, image processing, access control, query optimization and program analysis. The last section of the book points out directions for future studies.

Offers problem specifications and implementations in all of imperative, database, functional, logic and object-oriented programming languages using different data, control and module abstractions
Outlines a systematic method for transforming clear specifications into efficient implementations using three key steps: iterate, incrementalize and implement
Contains substantial examples in a wide range of application problems: hardware design, image processing, access control and many more