Social Processes and Proofs of Theorems and Programs It is argued that formal verifications of programs, no matter how obtained, will not play the same key role in the development of computer science and software engineering as proofs do in mathematics. Furthermore the absence of continuity, the inevitability of change, and the complexity of specification of significantly many real programs make the form al verification process difficult to justify and manage. It is felt that ease of formal verification should not dominate program language design. CACM May, 1979 De Millo, R. Lipton, R. Perlis, A. Formal mathematics, mathematical proofs, program verification, program specification 2.10 4.6 5.24 CA790501 DH June 5, 1979 2:23 PM 3140 5 3140 3140 5 3140 3140 5 3140 3178 5 3140 3076 6 3140 3140 6 3140 3142 6 3140 3179 6 3140 3180 6 3140 3181 6 3140 3182 6 3140