The main ideas underlying work on the model-theoretic foundations of algebraic specification and formal program development are presented in an informal way. An attempt is made to offer an overall view, rather than new results, and to focus on the basic motivation behind the technicalities presented elsewhere.

. We investigate the impact of modularity on the semantics and on the implementation of software specifications. Based on the stratified loose semantics approach we develop a suitable specification framework which meets our basic requirements: the independent construction of implementations for the single constituent parts (modules) of a system specification and the encapsulated development of each implementation part using the principle of stepwise refinement. Our paper is not aimed at providing an elaborated specification language but rather to concentrate on the modularity issues of system development. Hence, only few but powerful constructs are provided which can be seen as a kernel for further extensions. In particular, we will show that implementation and parameterization can be handled within a uniform concept and we will prove compatibility theorems like the horizontal composition property. All constructs are defined on top of a very general logical framework thus being applica...

this paper I briefly sketch recent work on meta-logical foundations that seems promising as a conceptual basis on which to achieve the goal of formal interoperability. Specificaly, I will briefly discuss:

This is a position paper giving our views on the uses and makeup of module interfaces. The position espoused is inspired by our work on the Extended ML (EML) formal software development framework and by ideas in the algebraic foundations of specification and formal development. The present state of interfaces in EML is outlined and set in the context of plans for a more general EML-like framework with axioms in interfaces taken from an arbitrary logical system formulated as an institution. Some more speculative plans are sketched concerning the simultaneous use of multiple institutions in specification and development. 1 Interfaces in general Modularisation mechanisms in programming languages such as C++ [Str86] and Standard ML (SML) [MacQ86] provide useful tools for coping with the complexity inherent in large software systems. A central ingredient of such schemes is the use of interfaces to mediate module interconnection. A module interface is a description of the facilities that th...

Data Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 4.5.4 Special Approaches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 4.6 Semantics of Programming Languages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 4.6.1 Semantics of Ada . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 4.6.2 Action Semantics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 4.7 Specification Languages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 4.7.1 Early Algebraic Specification Languages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 4.7.2 Recent Algebraic Specification Languages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 4.7.3 The Common Framework Initiative. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 5 Methodology 57 5.1 Development Phases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 5.1.1 Applica...