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> Why Don't People Use Formal Methods?

Because they're an emerging and unproven technology? Why don't people rewrite everything in Rust? That would surely be a lot more straightforward than adopting the sorts of "formal methods" where you only write a handful of (C-language equivalent) LOC per day, across the software industry! So why doesn't it happen? There's your answer.




Formal Methods are 30+ years old.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formal_methods


AI is 30+ years old too, and formal methods (especially things like solving SAT, or theorem proving) used to be considered AI. I'm not quite sure what your point is; just because something has a 30+ years history doesn't somehow make it a mature, usable tech.


Static type checking is abstract interpretation. If you program in Java you are using formal methods.


So we do use formal methods! Problem solved.


The proofs you produce are probably weaker than those the author wants




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