Programming Research Group Research Report RR-01-04

Yifeng Chen

February 2001, 22pp.

Abstract

This paper presents a technique called generic composition to provide a neat basis for sequential composition, different kinds of parallel compositions and various higher-order healthiness conditions appearing in a variety of semantic theories. The weak inverse of generic composition is defined. A completeness theorem shows that any predicate can be written in terms of generic composition and its weak inverse, and a number of algebraic laws are given to support reasoning.