---
title: "A Design for an Automatic Programming System"
authors:
  - "Douglas R. Smith"
doi: ""
url: "https://ijcai.org/proceedings/1981/196"
pdf: "https://ijcai.org/proceedings/1981/0196.pdf"
venue: "Proceedings of the Seventh International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence"
year: 1981
pages: "1027-1028"
track: "Automatic Programming"
keywords:
---

# A Design for an Automatic Programming System

Douglas R. Smith

*Proceedings of the Seventh International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence*, pages 1027-1028.

## Abstract

The algorithm design problem is concerned with the construction of an algorithm satisfying a given specification of a problem. We present an overview of a system, called NAPS, which designs algorithms in a to~own manner. Given a formal specification of a problem NAPS produces a top level algorithm plus specifications for any necessary subalgprithms. The specifications for the subalgprithms are produced in such a w~ that the top level algorithm will satisfy the original specifications if and only if subalgorithms can be built which satisfY the subalgprithm specifications.