To produce a program guaranteed to satisfy a given specification one can synthesize it from a formal constructive proof that a computation satisfying that specification exists. This process is particularly effective if the specifications are written in a high-level language that makes it easy for designers to specify their goals. We consider a high-level specification language that results from adding knowledge to a fragment of Nuprl specifically tailored for specifying distributed protocols, called event theory. We then show how high-level knowledge-based programs can be synthesized from the knowledge-based specifications using a proof development system such as Nuprl.
Methods of Halpern and Zuck then apply to convert these knowledge-based protocols to ordinary protocols. These methods can be expressed as heuristic transformation tactics in Nuprl.

Comment: A preliminary version of this paper appeared in Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Logic for Programming, Artificial Intelligence, and Reasoning LPAR 2004, pp. 449-465

• 03B42 - Logics of knowledge and belief (including belief change)
• 68N30 - Mathematical aspects of software engineering (specification, verification, metrics, requirements, etc.)
• 68Q45 - Formal languages and automata