A precise semantics for ultraloose specifications

Reid, Alastair D. (1993) A precise semantics for ultraloose specifications. MSc(R) thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

All formal specifiers face the danger of overspecification: accidentally writing an overly restrictive specification. This problem is particularly acute for axiomatic specifications because it is so easy to write axioms which hold for some of the intended implementations but not for all of them (or, rather, it is so hard not to write overly strong axioms). One of the best developed ways of recovering some of those implementations which do not literally satisfy the specification is to apply a "behavioural abstraction operator" to a specification: adding in those implementations which have the same "behaviour" as an implementation which does satisfy the specification. In two recent papers Wirsing and Broy propose an alternative (and apparently simpler) approach which they call "ultraloose specification." This approach is based on a particular style of writing axioms which avoids certain forms of overspecification. An important, unanswered question is "How does the ultraloose approach re-late to the other solutions?" The major achievement of this thesis is a proof that the ultraloose approach is semantically equivalent to the use of the "behavioural abstraction operator." This result is rather surprising in the light of a result by Schoett which seems to say that such a result is impossible.

• Item Type: Thesis (MSc(R))
• Qualification Level: Masters
• Keywords: Computer science.
• Subjects: Q Science > QA Mathematics > QA75 Electronic computers. Computer science
• Colleges/Schools: College of Science and Engineering > School of Computing Science
• Supervisor's Name: Thomas, Dr. Muffy
• Date of Award: 1993
• Depositing User: Enlighten Team
• Unique ID: glathesis:1993-75641
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 19 Nov 2019 19:02
• Last Modified: 11 Oct 2021 08:13
• Thesis DOI: 10.5525/gla.thesis.75641
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/75641