A simple proof is given, showing that for every operational description of a software system expressed as a discrete state transition function on a virtual machine, there is a continuous smooth function on the reals that agrees with the state transition function on all legal states and has exactly the same complexity. It is suggested that an implication of this result is that there is no reason, in principle, that the methods of classical analysis cannot be used in software engineering. >
['Richard A. DeMillo', 'Richard J. Lipton']
Defining software by continuous, smooth functions