Formal Methods - Mathematics, Theory, Recipes or what?

1. SCENARIO The 'science' of computers and computing has grown out of several diverse disciplines, notably mathematics, electronics and information science. The associated technology has developed at a phenomenal rate, and as with most practical subjects a proper, reasoned basis for computing did not start to emerge until after many systems had been built and successful results achieved. One consequence of these factors is that the subject is plagued with clashes of terminology (and there are some inconsistencies even across the papers to be found in this issue*). There are also differences in the way that computer users and professionals view the wide spectrum of activities that fall within 'computing'. In particular their perception of what is theory and what is practice or application, and the understanding of what constitutes Formal Methods, differs widely.