Protective interface specifications (1997)
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| Venue: | Iowa State University, Department of Computer Science |
| Citations: | 9 - 4 self |
BibTeX
@TECHREPORT{Leavens97protectiveinterface,
author = {Gary T. Leavens and Jeannette M. Wing},
title = {Protective interface specifications},
institution = {Iowa State University, Department of Computer Science},
year = {1997}
}
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Abstract
Abstract The interface specification of a procedure describes the procedure's behavior using pre- and postconditions. These pre- and postconditions are written using various functions. If some of these functions are partial, or underspecified, then the procedure specification may not be well-defined. We show how to write pre- and postcondition specifications that avoid such problems, by having the precondition "protect " the postcondition from the effects of partiality and underspecification. We formalize the notion of protection from partiality in the context of specification languages like VDM-SL and COLD-K. We also formalize the notion of protection from underspecification for the Larch family of specification languages, and for Larch show how one can prove that a procedure specification is protected from the effects of underspecification.
