This extensively revised and updated new edition of Specification of Software Systems builds upon the original focus on software specification with added emphasis on the practice of formal methods for specification and verification activities for different types of software systems and at different stages of developing software systems. Topics and features: provides a wide coverage of formal specification techniques and a clear writing style, supported by end-of-chapter bibliographic notes for further reading; presents a logical structure, with sections devoted to specification fundamentals, basics of formalism, logic, set theory and relations, property-oriented specification methods, and model-based specification techniques; contains end-of-chapter exercises and numerous case studies, with potential course outlines suggested in the Preface; covers Object-Z, B-Method, and Calculus of Communicating Systems; offers material that can be taught with tool-supported laboratory projects.

This invaluable textbook/reference provides an easy-to-read guide to the fundamentals of formal methods, highlighting the rich applications of formal methods across a diverse range of areas of computing. Topics and features: introduces the key concepts in software engineering, software reliability and dependability, formal methods, and discrete mathematics; presents a short history of logic, from Aristotle’s syllogistic logic and the logic of the Stoics, through Boole’s symbolic logic, to Frege’s work on predicate logic; covers propositional and predicate logic, as well as more advanced topics such as fuzzy logic, temporal logic, intuitionistic logic, undefined values, and the applications of logic to AI; examines the Z specification language, the Vienna Development Method (VDM) and Irish School of VDM, and the unified modelling language (UML); discusses Dijkstra’s calculus of weakest preconditions, Hoare’s axiomatic semantics of programming languages, and the classical approach of Parnas and his tabular expressions; provides coverage of automata theory, probability and statistics, model checking, and the nature of proof and theorem proving; reviews a selection of tools available to support the formal methodist, and considers the transfer of formal methods to industry; includes review questions and highlights key topics in every chapter, and supplies a helpful glossary at the end of the book. This stimulating guide provides a broad and accessible overview of formal methods for students of computer science and mathematics curious as to how formal methods are applied to the field of computing.

How can we make sure that the software we build does what it is supposed to? This book provides an insight into established techniques which help developers to overcome the complexity of software development by constructing models of software systems in early design stages. It uses one of the leading formal methods, VDM (Vienna Development Method), and combines training in the formalism with industry-strength tool support and examples derived from real industrial applications. The principles taught here also apply to many of the current generation of formal methods. This second edition has been updated to include advanced online tool support for formal modelling as well as up-to-date reports on real commercial applications in areas as diverse as business information systems and firmware design.

Includes over 450 A to Z articles addressing the latest advances and findings in computer science and engineering, in addition to important topics of interest to computer scientists and engineers, including standards, electronic commerce, financial engineering, and computer education. Each article is written by an expert in his or her particular specialty and is peer-reviewed by two other experts to ensure that it is clear and precise. References and website of related interest accompany every article.

This book provides an introduction to practical formal modelling techniques in the context of object-oriented system design. It is aimed at both practising software engineers with some prior experience of object-oriented design/programming and at intermediate or advanced students studying object-oriented design or modelling in a short course. The following features make this book particularly attractive to potential instructors: § The relationship with UML and object-oriented programming makes it easy to integrate with the mainstream computing curriculum. Although the book is about formal methods, it does not have to be treated as a specialist topic. § The use of tools and an accessible modelling language improves student motivation. § The industry-based examples and case studies add to the credibility of the approach. § The light touch approach means that the material appeals to students with a wider range of abilities than is the case in a conventional formal methods text. § Support materials as listed above.

This gently-paced software engineering text concentrates on the use of formal methods for the development of high integrity software. The book contains examples and exercises throughout and is supported by a dedicated web site.

This volume presents the proceedings of the 2nd VDM-Europe Symposium held in Dublin, Ireland, September 12-16, 1988. VDM, the Vienna Development Method, is a formal method for software engineering. It is being applied to an increasing number of projects by companies throughout Europe and there is an active international research programme supporting this process. "VDM - The Way Ahead" is the second of a series of symposia sponsored by the Commission of the European Communities (CEC) and organised by VDM-Europe. The term "formal method" refers to mathematically formal software specification and production methods. These methods aim to increase the quality of software in two related ways: by improving the specification and by making verification during the software production process more effective and easier to audit. The symposium proceedings focus on five areas of interest: education and technology transfer, experience and use of VDM, tools and support environments, method development and foundation at work, the standardisation of VDM. The proceedings are of interest to all those concerned with the application of more rigorous approaches to software development and the associated theoretical foundations.

This book presents comprehensive studies on nine specification languages and their logics of reasoning. The editors and authors are authorities on these specification languages and their application. In a unique feature, the book closes with short commentaries on the specification languages written by researchers closely associated with their original development. The book contains extensive references and pointers to future developments.

There are several theories of programming. The first usable theory, often called "Hoare's Logic", is still probably the most widely known. In it, a specification is a pair of predicates: a precondition and postcondition (these and all technical terms will be defined in due course). Another popular and closely related theory by Dijkstra uses the weakest precondition predicate transformer, which is a function from programs and postconditions to preconditions. lones's Vienna Development Method has been used to advantage in some industries; in it, a specification is a pair of predicates (as in Hoare's Logic), but the second predicate is a relation. Temporal Logic is yet another formalism that introduces some special operators and quantifiers to describe some aspects of computation. The theory in this book is simpler than any of those just mentioned. In it, a specification is just a boolean expression. Refinement is just ordinary implication. This theory is also more general than those just mentioned, applying to both terminating and nonterminating computation, to both sequential and parallel computation, to both stand-alone and interactive computation. And it includes time bounds, both for algorithm classification and for tightly constrained real-time applications.