| Proof in VDM: A Practitioner's Guide Softcover Repri Edition Contributor(s): Bicarregui, Juan C. (Author), Fitzgerald, John (Author), Lindsay, Peter A. (Author) |
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ISBN: 354019813X ISBN-13: 9783540198130 Publisher: Springer OUR PRICE: $52.24 Product Type: Paperback Published: December 1993 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Computers | Software Development & Engineering - General |
| Dewey: 005.12 |
| Series: Formal Approaches to Computing and Information Technology (F |
| Physical Information: 0.78" H x 6.14" W x 9.21" (1.17 lbs) 362 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Formal specifications were first used in the description of program- ming languages because of the central role that languages and their compilers play in causing a machine to perform the computations required by a programmer. In a relatively short time, specification notations have found their place in industry and are used for the description of a wide variety of software and hardware systems. A formal method - like VDM - must offer a mathematically-based specification language. On this language rests the other key element of the formal method: the ability to reason about a specification. Proofs can be empioyed in reasoning about the potential behaviour of a system and in the process of showing that the design satisfies the specification. The existence of a formal specification is a prerequisite for the use of proofs; but this prerequisite is not in itself sufficient. Both proofs and programs are large formal texts. Would-be proofs may therefore contain errors in the same way as code. During the difficult but inevitable process of revising specifications and devel- opments, ensuring consistency is a major challenge. It is therefore evident that another requirement - for the successful use of proof techniques in the development of systems from formal descriptions - is the availability of software tools which support the manipu- lation of large bodies of formulae and help the user in the design of the proofs themselves. |