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There is an entire field of CS research on this topic, commonly referred to as formal verification. Some programs are written this way.

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Yup and I had to take two modules on it for my degree. I've never encountered anything so dull in my life! [That was probably because the material was presented in such a dry way, I'm pretty sure anything can be interesting if someone with passion is also a skilled presenter]

It's definitely the presentation. I also studied formal verification in my second year and used it as an opportunity to catch up on missed sleep.

However, the third year I studied how to formally define programming languages and really enjoyed it. It was all about delivery.

I think class size has an effect too - it's much easier to engage with smaller classes. The second year module was mandatory, whereas the third year module was optional.

That's quite sad: Formal methods should be one of the more exciting topics in your CS programme. Hope they didn't scar you too badly.

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