Abstract not found

The properties of a simple and natural notion of observational equivalence of algebras and the corresponding specification-building operation are studied. We begin with a defmition of observational equivalence which is adequate to handle reachable algebras only, and show how to extend it to cope with unreachable algebras and also how it may be generalised to make sense under an arbitrary institution. Behavioural equivalence is treated as an important special case of observational equivalence, and its central role in program development is shown by means of an example.

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.

: This paper presents a number of concepts of a mapping between logical systems modelled as institutions, discusses their mutual merits and demerits, and sketches their role in the process of system specification and development. Some simple properties of the resulting categories of institutions are given. 1 Introduction We have to live with a multitude of logical systems used in various approaches to software specification and development. The proliferation of logical systems in the area is not just researchers' fancy, but results from the very practical needs to capture various aspects of software systems and to cater for various programming paradigms. Each of them leads to a different notion of a semantic model capturing the semantic essence of the adopted view of software systems. For instance, standard (many-sorted) algebras [BL70], [GTW78] provide a satisfactory framework for modelling data types where all operations always yield well-defined results. However, if general recursi...

This paper gives a short introduction to the algebraic specification language Spectrum. Using simple, well-known examples, the objectives and concepts of Spectrum are explained. The Spectrum language is based on axiomatic specification techniques and is oriented towards functional programs. Spectrum includes the following features: ffl partial functions, definedness logic and fixed point theory ffl higher-order elements and typed -abstraction ffl non-strict functions and infinite objects ffl full first-order predicate logic with induction principles ffl predicative polymorphism with sort classes ffl parameterization and modularization Spectrum is based on the concept of loose semantics.

This paper presents a particular approach to the design and verification of large sequential systems. It is based on structured algebraic specifications and stepwise refinement by program modules. The approach is implemented in Kiv (Karlsruhe Interactive Verifier), and supports the entire design process starting from formal specifications and ending with verified code. Its main characteristics are a strict decompositional design discipline for modular systems, a powerful proof component, and an evolutionary verification model supporting incremental error correction and verification. We present the design methodology for modular systems, a feasible verification method for single modules, and an evolutionary verification technique based on reuse of proofs. We report on the current performance of the system, compare it to others in the field, and discuss future perspectives.

Behavioural theories are a generalization of first-order theories where the equality predicate symbol is interpreted by a behavioural equality of objects (and not by their identity). In this paper we first consider arbitrary behavioural equalities determined by some (partial) congruence relation and we show how to reduce the behavioural theory of any class of algebras to (a subset of) the standard theory of some corresponding class of algebras. This reduction is the basis of a method for proving behavioural theorems whenever an axiomatization of the behavioural equality is provided. Then we focus on the important special case of (partial) observational equalities where two elements are observationally equal if they cannot be distinguished by observable computations over some set of input values. We provide general conditions under which an obvious infinite axiomatization of the observational equality can be replaced by a finitary one and we provide methodological guidelines for finding such...

The behavioural semantics of specifications with higher-order logical formulae as axioms is analyzed. A characterization of behavioural abstraction via behavioural satisfaction of formulae in which the equality symbol is interpreted as indistinguishability, which is due to Reichel and was recently generalized to the case of first-order logic by Bidoit et al, is further generalized to this case. The fact that higher-order logic is powerful enough to express the indistinguishability relation is used to characterize behavioural satisfaction in terms of ordinary satisfaction, and to develop new methods for reasoning about specifications under behavioural semantics. 1 Introduction An important ingredient in the use of algebraic specifications to describe data abstractions is the concept of behavioural equivalence between algebras, which seems to appropriately capture the "black box" character of data abstractions, see e.g. [GGM76], [GM82], [ST87] and [ST95]. Roughly speaking (since there ...

An overview of past, present and future work on the Extended ML formal program development framework is given, with emphasis on two topics of current active research: the semantics of the Extended ML specification language, and tools to support formal program development.

The Extended ML specification language provides a framework for the formal stepwise development of modular programs in the Standard ML programming language from specifications. The object of this paper is to equip Extended ML with a semantics which is completely independent of the logical system used to write specifications, building on Goguen and Burstall's work on the notion of an institution as a formalisation of the concept of a logical system. One advantage of this is that it permits freedom in the choice of the logic used in writing specifications; an intriguing side-effect is that it enables Extended ML to be used to develop programs in languages other than Standard ML since we view programs as simply Extended ML specifications which happen to include only "executable" axioms. The semantics of Extended ML is defined in terms of the primitive specification-building operations of the ASL kernel specification language which itself has an institution-independent semantics. It is no...