Personal view: Formal methods: epideictic or apodeictic?

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Abstract
If you are confused by the title above you are in the same boat as the vast majority of software producers when confronted with a display of formal methods. The easiest option when dealing with an activity whose benets are doubtful and which lo oks impenetrable is to ignore it and do without. This is precisely what most software developers do and not necessarily to the detriment of their business (unless this business has safety implications); witness Microsoft, which makes millions of dollars selling MSDOS and Windows without a single quantifier in sight. Even a successful mathematical product such as Mathematica, which supports the interactive computer-based use of mathematics, consists of the order of a million lines of C-based code produced with no formal development.

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