On flowchart theories Part I. The deterministic case

AbstractWe give a calculus for the classes of deterministic flowchart schemes with respect to the strong equivalence relation, similar to the calculus of the classes of polynomials with respect to the reduction of similar terms. The algebraic structure involved is a strong iteration theory, i.e., an iteration theory (defined by Bloom, Elgot, and Wright, SIAM J. Comput. 9 (1980), 525–540) satisfying a “functorial dagger implication.