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Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Specifications'

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Published: 4 June 2021
Last updated: 30 July 2024

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1

Tan, Yang Meng. "Formal specification techniques for promoting software modularity, enhancing documentation, and testing specifications." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1994. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/35391.

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2

Utiome, Erezi Ame Emmanuel. "Extending building information models to construction specifications." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 2015. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/84929/1/Erezi_Utiome_Thesis.pdf.

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This project examined the role that written specifications play in the building procurement process and the relationship that specifications should have with respect to the use of BIM within the construction industry. A three-part approach was developed to integrate specifications, product libraries and BIM. Typically handled by different disciplines within project teams, these provide the basis for a holistic approach to the development of building descriptions through the design process and into construction.
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Leung, Ping-hung Karl Richard. "Towards a semantics bridge between structured specifications and logic specifications /." [Hong Kong : University of Hong Kong], 1992. http://sunzi.lib.hku.hk/hkuto/record.jsp?B13212771.

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4

Wong, Hong-Yee. "Abstract scene specifications." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1997. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk3/ftp04/nq21323.pdf.

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5

Simmons, Robert J. "Substructural Logical Specifications." Research Showcase @ CMU, 2012. http://repository.cmu.edu/dissertations/205.

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A logical framework and its implementation should serve as a flexible tool for specifying, simulating, and reasoning about formal systems. When the formal systems we are interested in exhibit state and concurrency, however, existing logical frameworks fall short of this goal. Logical frameworks based on a rewriting interpretation of substructural logics, ordered and linear logic in particular, can help. To this end, this dissertation introduces and demonstrates four methodologies for developing and using substructural logical frameworks for specifying and reasoning about stateful and concurrent systems. Structural focalization is a synthesis of ideas from Andreoli’s focused sequent calculi and Watkins’s hereditary substitution. We can use structural focalization to take a logic and define a restricted form of derivations, the focused derivations, that form the basis of a logical framework. We apply this methodology to define SLS, a logical framework for substructural logical specifications, as a fragment of ordered linear lax logic. Logical correspondence is a methodology for relating and inter-deriving different styles of programming language specification in SLS. The styles we connect range from very high-level specification styles like natural semantics, which do not fully specify the control structure of programs, to low-level specification styles like destination-passing, which provide detailed control over concurrency and control flow. We apply this methodology to systematically synthesize a low-level destination-passing semantics for a Mini-ML language extended with stateful and concurrent primitives. The specification is mostly high-level except for the relatively few rules that actually deal with concurrency. Linear logical approximation is a methodology for deriving program analyses by performing abstract analysis on the SLS encoding of the language’s operational semantics. We demonstrate this methodology by deriving a control flow analysis and an alias analysis from suitable programming language specifications. Generative invariants are a powerful generalization of both context-free grammars and LF’s regular worlds that allow us to express invariants of SLS specifications in SLS.We show that generative invariants can form the basis of progress-andpreservation- style reasoning about programming languages encoded in SLS.
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Salgado, Fonseca Cerveira Pinto Helena Sofia Silva Borges. "Understanding service specifications." Thesis, University of Warwick, 2005. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.425519.

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7

NGUYEN, HONG PHUONG. "Derivation de specifications formelles b a partir de specifications semi-formelles." Paris, CNAM, 1998. http://www.theses.fr/1998CNAM0321.

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Les methodes les plus utilisees en conception des systemes d'information sont basees principalement sur l'utilisation de diverses notations semi-formelles (diagrammes d'objets, diagrammes etats/transitions, ) qui presentent des avantages indeniables : puissance d'expression, vue graphique et synthetique du systeme d'information, faculte de communication avec les utilisateurs. Cependant il leur manque les qualites de concision, de precision et la possibilite de preuves des methodes formelles (basees en particulier sur la logique et la theorie des ensembles). Ce travail s'inscrit dans le cadre de l'integration des methodes semi-formelles et formelles. L'objectif de ce travail est de combiner leurs avantages respectifs en fournissant des regles de derivation de specifications formelles (en particulier en b) a partir de specifications semi-formelles (en particulier par objets). Tout d'abord, nous selectionnons les concepts les plus repandus des methodes semi-formelles et examinons precisement leur semantique. Cet examen nous conduit souvent a effectuer un choix entre plusieurs interpretations possibles des notations semi-formelles et meme a les completer lorsqu'elles s'averent insuffisantes pour decrire des situations reelles. Puis nous donnons des regles de traduction des concepts des modeles semi-formels en b. Notre objectif est de proposer des regles de derivation menant a une specification formelle a la fois comprehensible, fidele a la specification semi-formelle de depart, et modulaire afin de permettre des preuves incrementales et la reutilisation des composants. Afin de valider la methode de derivation, sont presentees trois etudes de cas developpees sous l'atelier b en appliquant nos regles.
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8

Tangvichachan, Theera. "Conversion of solid ink density and dot gain specifications into colorimetric specifications /." Online version of thesis, 1993. http://hdl.handle.net/1850/11886.

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9

Alves, Campos de Sousa Dionísio Francisco Miguel. "Composition of hierarchic default specifications." [S.l. : s.n.], 1997. http://deposit.ddb.de/cgi-bin/dokserv?idn=95433891X.

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10

Martinsson, Christoffer. "Requirements Specifications Simplified and Adapted." Thesis, Örebro University, Swedish Business School at Örebro University, 2008. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:oru:diva-4832.

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Systems development projects and their documents are more or less standardized and can mainly be applied on systems that are supposed to be built from scratch, or updated. In pace with the number of IT-systems are increasing worldwide there is no need for every organization to build their own IT-system. Nowadays it is also possible to purchase licenses which allow the purchaser to modify or add functions to the system. Along with those changes, there have been an increased amount of “rapid development methods” such as Agile and “Quick and Dirty” solutions, but these methods and perspectives are mainly focusing on entire systems development processes, as the old ones, but quicker.

If a company purchases an off-the-shelf system with source code available, there is no real need to go through a proper systems development process. During interviews with a small company that has acquired a system as mentioned above, the researcher realized that only one single document is needed, the requirements specification. Today’s requirements specifications can be either well detailed or less, but a project still needs the details specified. Combining a known agile development process with IEEE’s standardized requirements specification, a new way to proceed with projects based on one single document (the requirements specification) has been made. This document also has a focus on simplicity for the inexperienced readers, but with the depth that every developer has got a use for.

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11

Hughes, Thomas S. "Animation prototyping of formal specifications." Thesis, Loughborough University, 1992. https://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/2134/27241.

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At the present time one of the key issues relating to the design of real-time systems is the specification of software requirements. It is now clear that specification correctness is an essential factor for the design and implementation of high quality software. As a result considerable emphasis is placed on producing specifications which are not only correct, but provably so. This has led to the application of mathematically-based formal specification techniques in the software life-cycle model. Unfortunately, experience in safety-critical systems has shown that specification correctness is not, in itself, sufficient. Such specifications must also be comprehensible to all involved in the system development. The topic of this thesis—Animation Prototyping—is a methodology devised to make such specifications understandable and usable. Its primary objective is to demonstrate key properties of formal specifications to non-software specialists. This it does through the use of computer-animated pictures which respond to the dictates of the formal specification.
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Ashkar, Pierre. "Symbolic execution of LOTOS specifications." Thesis, University of Ottawa (Canada), 1994. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/6679.

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LOTOS (Language Of Temporal Ordering Specification) is a Formal description Technique (FDT) based on the temporal ordering of observational behaviour. It was developed by ISO (International Organization for Standardization) for the specification of OSI (Open System Interconnection) services and protocols. This thesis presents a method of translating a LOTOS specification written in any given style into either of two simpler forms, known as the Monolithic Style Specification and the Parameterized Tree. A method of applying LOTOS expansion theorems to derive an intermediary form, known as the Behaviour Tree, is described first. A Reduction Algorithm, based on a subset of congruence rules, has been developed to provide a means to eliminate superfluous internal events and branches in the Behaviour Tree prior to conversion to either of the two simpler forms. Methods of transforming the reduced Behaviour Tree to either the Monolithic Style Specification ar Parameterized Tree have been developed. A tool has been developed to demonstrate these concepts. To show the application of this tool, we discuss a method for obtaining test cases from a Monolithic Style Specification. Finally, a method to translate such test cases into TTCN form has been outlined.
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Meziane, F. "From English to formal specifications." Thesis, University of Salford, 1994. http://usir.salford.ac.uk/1732/.

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Specifications provide the foundation upon which a system can be formally developed. If a specification is wrong, then no matter what method of design is used, or what quality assurance procedures are in place, they will not result in a system that meets the requirements. The specification of a system involves people of different profiles who favour different representations. At the beginning natural language is used because the specification document acts as a contract between the user and the developers. Most of the time, the only representation that users understand and agree on is natural language. At the other end, developers find natural language specifications ambiguous and incomplete and may therefore prefer formal specifications. The transition from informal specifications to formal ones is an error prone and time consuming process. This transition must be supported to ensure that the formal specifications are consistent with the informal ones. In this research we propose an interactive approach for producing formal specifications from English specifications. The approach uses research in the area of natural language understanding to analyse English specifications in order to detect ambiguities. The method used for analysing natural language text is based on McCord’s approach. This method consists of translating natural language sentences into a logical form language representation. This helps to identify ambiguities present in natural language specifications and to identify the entities and relationships. These entities and relationships are used as a basis for producing VDM data types. We also investigate the production of data type invariants for restricted sentences and the production of some common specifications. We test our approach by implementing it in Prolog-2 and apply it to an independent case study.
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Petria, Marius. "Generic refinements for behavioral specifications." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/4889.

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This thesis investigates the properties of generic refinements of behavioral specifications. At the base of this investigation stands the view from algebraic specification that abstract data types can be modeled as algebras. A specification of a data type is formed from a syntactic part, i.e. a signature detailing the interface of the data type, and a semantic part, i.e. a class of algebras (called its models) that contains the valid implementations of that data type. Typically, the class of algebras that constitutes the semantics of a specification is defined as the class of algebras that satisfy some given set of axioms. The behavioral aspect of a specification comes from relaxing the requirements imposed by axioms, i.e. by allowing in the semantics of a specification not only the algebras that literally satisfy the given axioms, but also those algebras that appear to behave according to those axioms. Several frameworks have been developed to express the adequate notions of what it means to be a behavioral model of a set of axioms, and our choice as the setting for this thesis will be Bidoit and Hennicker’s Constructor-based Observational Logic, abbreviated COL. Using specifications that rely on the behavioral aspects defined by COL we study the properties of generic refinements between specifications. Refinement is a relation between specifications. The refinement of a target specification by a source specification is given by a function that constructs models of the target specification from the models of the source specification. These functions are called constructions and the source and target specifications that they relate are called the context of the refinement. The theory of refinements between algebraic specifications, with or without the behavioral aspect, has been well studied in the literature. Our analysis starts from those studies and adapts them to COL, which is a relatively new framework, and for which refinement has been studied only briefly. The main part of this thesis is formed by the analysis of generic refinements. Generic refinements are represented by constructions that can be used in various contexts, not just in the context of their definition. These constructions provide the basis for modular refinements, i.e. one can use a locally defined construction in a global context in order to refine just a part of a source specification. The ability to use a refinement outside its original context imposes additional requirements on the construction that represents it. An implementer writing such a construction must not use details of the source models that can be contradicted by potential global context requirements. This means, roughly speaking, that he must use only the information available in the source signature and also any a priori assumption that was made about the contexts of use. We look at the basic case of generic refinements that are reusable in every global context, and then we treat a couple of variations, i.e. generic refinements for which an a priori assumption it is made about the nature of their usage contexts. In each of these cases we follow the same pattern of investigation. First we characterize the constructions that ensure reusability by means of preservation of relations, and then, in most cases, we show that such constructions must be definable in terms of their source signature. Throughout the thesis we use an informal analogy between generic (i.e. polymorphic) functions that appear in second order lambda calculus and the generic refinements that we are studying. This connection will enable us to describe some properties of generic refinements that correspond to the properties of polymorphic functions inferred from their types and named “theorems for free” by Wadler. The definability results, the connection between the assumptions made about the usage contexts and the characterizing relations, and the “theorems for free” for behavioral specifications constitute the main contributions of this thesis.
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Harman, Neal Andrew. "Formal specifications for digital systems." Thesis, University of Leeds, 1989. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.235627.

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Neary, Duncan S. "Visual construction of algebraic specifications." Thesis, University of Liverpool, 2002. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.250223.

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Vasconcelos, Alexandre Marcos Lins de. "Incremental processing of Z specifications." Thesis, University of York, 1993. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.359264.

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18

Milicevic, Aleksandar Ph D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "Executable specifications for Java programs." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/62442.

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Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2010.
Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 55-57).
In this thesis, we present a unified environment for running declarative specifications in the context of an imperative object-oriented programming language. Specifications are Alloy-like, written in first-order relational logic with transitive closure, and the imperative language for this purpose is Java. By being able to mix imperative code with executable declarative specifications, the user can easily express constraint problems in-place, i.e. in terms of the existing data structures and objects on the heap. After a solution is found, our framework will automatically update the heap to reflect the solution, so the user can continue to manipulate the program heap in the usual imperative way, without ever having to manually translate the problem back and forth between the host programming environment and the solver language. We show that this approach is not only convenient, but, for certain problems, like puzzles or NP-complete graph algorithms, it can also outperform the manual implementation. We also present an optimization technique that allowed us to run our tool on heaps with almost 2000 objects.
by Aleksandar Milicevic.
S.M.
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19

Andrews, Simon John. "Writing and animating Z specifications." Thesis, Sheffield Hallam University, 1996. http://shura.shu.ac.uk/19278/.

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The work presented in this thesis is concerned with the issues involved in writing and demonstrating formal specifications of information systems written in Z. The use of Z in software development, to enhance productivity and improve software quality, is not without its problems. Whilst the notation itself is highly developed, ways of systematically using Z to create specifications are, by contrast, poorly documented. Also, given that most commissioners of software are not skilled in reading Z, ways of demonstrating the important features of a formal Z specification to a customer are needed if the effective validation of the specification against user requirements is to take place. In this thesis we present a systematic approach, known as OPERATOR, for developing Z specifications and evaluate it against the issues identified for writing formal specifications. We also look at various ways of demonstrating Z specifications. We describe how Z specifications may be animated using Crystal, but go on to present a prototype CASE tool, known as Zappa, that may be used to create and demonstrate faithful animations of Z specifications. The thesis starts with a thorough review of software engineering and of the development and rise of formal methods. The development of the OPERATOR approach is then given along with a review of animation, a description of the Crystal technique, and the development of the CASE tool Zappa. An evaluation of the research against the stated aims is presented and areas where future research is needed are pointed out.
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Tellez, Arenas Agnès. "Contraintes ensemblistes et specifications formelles." Orléans, 1999. http://www.theses.fr/1999ORLE2019.

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Le but de cette these est de donner des outils permettant de decrire et de traiter des relations entre ensembles intentionnels (contraintes ensemblistes), puis de les appliquer a l'expression et a la validation de proprietes de programmes, dans le cadre d'un langage de specification formel (methode b). Les ensembles sont une structure de donnees dont l'expressivite est reconnue, et peuvent etre representes de differentes manieres. Nous proposons de les decrire en intention, en definissant un ensemble par les proprietes communes de ses elements. La semantique de ces ensembles est donnee en terme de programmes logiques. Nous proposons un semi-algorithme de test de satisfiabilite d'une conjonction d'inclusions entre ensembles intentionnels. Son but est de repondre a la question existe-t-il une solution a ces contraintes ?. De nombreuses methodes de specification formelles sont basees sur l'ecriture de machines abstraites qui decrivent l'etat d'un module et son evolution. Seules des proprietes statiques, concernant l'etat du systeme a un moment donne, peuvent generalement etre specifiees et verifiees. Dans la seconde partie de cette these nous utilisons le formalisme des ensembles intentionnels pour exprimer des proprietes dynamiques de machines abstraites, par l'ecriture d'un systeme de contraintes sur des ensembles d'etats atteignables par les executions. Pour verifier qu'une machine abstraite m respecte ces proprietes, nous proposons une methode d'analyse de programmes permettant de construire un programme logique vu comme la synthese du comportement des operations de m, et permettant d'etudier l'ensemble des etats atteignables.
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Wheeler, Graham. "Protocol engineering from Estelle specifications." Doctoral thesis, University of Cape Town, 1993. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/13530.

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Bibliography: leaves 129-132.
The design of efficient, reliable communication protocols has long been an area of active research in computer science and engineering, and will remain so while the technology continues to evolve, and information becomes increasingly distributed. This thesis examines the problem of predicting . the performance of a multi-layered protocol system directly from formal specifications in the ISO specification language Estelle, a general-purpose Pascal-based language with support for concurrent processes in the form of communicating extended finite-state machines. The thesis begins with an overview of protocol engineering, and a discusses the areas of performance evaluation and protocol specification. Important parts of the mathematics of discrete-time semi-Markov processes are presented to assist in understanding the approaches to performance evaluation described later. Not much work has been done to date in the area of performance prediction from specifications. The idea was first mooted by Rudin, who illustrated it with a simple model based on the global state reachability graph of a set of synchronous communicating FSMs. About the same time Kritzinger proposed a closed multiclass queueing model. Both of these approaches are described, and their respective strengths and weaknesses pointed out. Two new methods are then presented. They have been implemented as part of an Estelle-based CASE tool, the Protocol Engineering Workbench (PE!V). In the first approach, we show how discrete-time semi-Markov chain models can be derived from meta-executions of Estelle specifications, and consider ways of using these models predictively. The second approach uses a structure similar to a global-state graph. Many of the limitations of Rudin's approach are overcome, and our technique produces highly accurate performance predictions. The PEW is also described in some detail, and its use in performance evaluation illustrated with some examples. The thesis concludes with a discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of the new methods, and possible ways of improving them.
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Corwin, Paul S. "Incremental Validation of Formal Specifications." DigitalCommons@CalPoly, 2009. https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/theses/71.

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This thesis presents a tool for the mechanical validation of formal software specifications. The tool is based on a novel approach to incremental validation. In this approach, small-scale aspects of a specification are validated, as part of the stepwise refinement of a formal model. The incremental validation technique can be considered a form of "lightweight" model checking. This is in contrast to a "heavyweight" approach, wherein an entire large-scale model is validated en masse. The validation tool is part of a formal modeling and specification language (FMSL), used in software engineering instruction. A lightweight, incremental approach to validation is beneficial in this context. Such an approach can be used to elucidate specification concepts in a step-by-step manner. A heavy-weight approach to model checking is more difficult to use in this way. The FMSL model checker has itself been validated by evaluating portions of a medium-scale specification example. The example has been used in software engineering courses for a number of years, but has heretofore been validated only by human inspection. Evidence for the utility of the validation tool is provided by its performance during the example validation. In particular, use of the tool led to the discovery of a specification flaw that had gone undiscovered by manual validation alone.
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Thakar, Aniruddha. "Visualization feedback from informal specifications." Thesis, This resource online, 1993. http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-03242009-040810/.

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Zeigler, Bernard, and Alexandre Muzy. "Emergence at the Fundamental Systems Level: Existence Conditions for Iterative Specifications." MDPI AG, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/622817.

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Conditions under which compositions of component systems form a well-defined system-of-systems are here formulated at a fundamental level. Statement of what defines a well-defined composition and sufficient conditions guaranteeing such a result offers insight into exemplars that can be found in special cases such as differential equation and discrete event systems. For any given global state of a composition, two requirements can be stated informally as: (1) the system can leave this state, i.e., there is at least one trajectory defined that starts from the state; and (2) the trajectory evolves over time without getting stuck at a point in time. Considered for every global state, these conditions determine whether the resultant is a well-defined system and, if so, whether it is non-deterministic or deterministic. We formulate these questions within the framework of iterative specifications for mathematical system models that are shown to be behaviorally equivalent to the Discrete Event System Specification (DEVS) formalism. This formalization supports definitions and proofs of the afore-mentioned conditions. Implications are drawn at the fundamental level of existence where the emergence of a system from an assemblage of components can be characterized. We focus on systems with feedback coupling where existence and uniqueness of solutions is problematic.
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Yoo, Daniel. "Alchemy -- Transmuting base specifications into implementations." Worcester, Mass. : Worcester Polytechnic Institute, 2008. http://www.wpi.edu/Pubs/ETD/Available/etd-022609-151429/.

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Ho, Andrea. "Creating preliminary specifications for printed photovoltaics." Click here to view, 2010. http://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/grcsp/16/.

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Thesis (B.S.)--California Polytechnic State University, 2010.
Project advisor: Malcolm Keif. Title from PDF title page; viewed on Apr. 20, 2010. Includes bibliographical references. Also available on microfiche.
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Alvestad, Kristian. "Domain Specific Languages for Executable Specifications." Thesis, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Department of Computer and Information Science, 2007. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:no:ntnu:diva-8781.

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In agile software development, acceptance test-driven development is sometimes mentioned, and some have explored the possibilities. This study investigates if a non-technical individual can write executable specifications based on domain specific languages from three different frameworks. Fit, which is an acceptance testing framework based on HTML forms, CubicTest which is an acceptance testing framework that uses modeling through Eclipse, and RSpec, a BDD framework for specifying system behavior through examples. This study involves an experiment where the perceived effectiveness and understandability of the three frameworks are evaluated. 10 students participated in a one and a half hour experiment for which they had prepared themselves for, by having one week to acquire overview of their assigned framework. The experiment was held in a computer laboratory at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. After results were gathered and analyzed, statistical hypothesis testing was unfortunately not able to reject the null-hypothesis of the study. No conclusions could therefore be drawn. The results of the study are discussed and possible improvements and further work is mentioned.

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Nojoumian, Mehrdad. "Document engineering of complex software specifications." Thesis, University of Ottawa (Canada), 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/27479.

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The research presented in this thesis aims at document engineering of complex specifications, of which the UML Superstructure Specification (version 2.1) is our initial target. Document engineering deals with principles, tools and processes that improve our ability to create, manage, and maintain documents [40]. Our motivation is that such specifications are dense and intricate to use, and tend to have complicated structures with lots of repetitive, or 'boilerplate' material. End users cannot use them efficiently because of the general complexity of the document. Our objective and main contribution in this thesis is therefore to create an approach that allowed us to re-engineer PDF-based documents, and to illustrate how to make more usable versions of electronic documents such as specifications, conference proceedings, technical books, etc so that end-users to have a better experience with them. The first step was to extract the logical structure of the document. Our initial assumption was that, many key concepts of a document are expressed in this structure, which includes the headings of the chapters, sections, subsections, etc. We demonstrated this by analyzing some data, and created a special-purpose parser to generate a well-formed XML document with various types of tags. In the next phase, we created a user interface for end users by generating a multi-layer HTML version of the document to facilitate document browsing, navigating, and concept exploration. Although our targeted document was the UML Superstructure Specification, we chose a general approach for most phases of our work including format conversions, logical structure extraction, text extraction, hypertext generation, etc. Therefore, by minor adjustments we can process other complex documents to gain our mentioned goals. We also established the major infrastructure for a new document engineering framework.
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Fuxman, Ariel Damián. "Formal analysis of early requirements specifications." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 2001. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk3/ftp05/MQ62963.pdf.

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Zeng, Qinglong. "Staged postponement of committing order specifications /." View abstract or full-text, 2007. http://library.ust.hk/cgi/db/thesis.pl?IELM%202007%20ZENG.

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Brückner, Ingo. "Slicing integrated formal specifications for verification /." Oldenburg : Univ., Fak. II, Dep. für Informatik, 2008. http://bvbr.bib-bvb.de:8991/F?func=service&doc_library=BVB01&doc_number=016564256&line_number=0001&func_code=DB_RECORDS&service_type=MEDIA.

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Tomer, Amir. "Implementing specifications using logic with inheritence." Thesis, Imperial College London, 1992. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.307546.

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Murrell, Stephen. "State transition specifications of abstract machines." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1988. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.235081.

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Lacey, D. J. "Program transformation using temporal logic specifications." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2003. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.289278.

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Hewson, John Aubrey. "Constraint-based specifications for system configuration." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/8267.

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Declarative, object-oriented configuration management systems are widely used, and there is a desire to extend such systems with automated analysis and decision-making. This thesis introduces a new formulation for configuration management problems based on the tools and techniques of constraint programming, which enables automated decision-making. We present ConfSolve, an object-oriented declarative configuration language, in which logical constraints on a system can be specified. Verification, impact analysis, and the generation of valid configurations can then be performed. This is achieved via translation to the MiniZinc constraint programming language, which is in turn solved via the Gecode constraint solver. We formally define the syntax, type system, and semantics of ConfSolve, in order to provide it with a rigorous foundation. Additionally we show that our implementation outperforms previous work, which utilised an SMT solver, while adding new features such as optimisation. We next develop an extension of the ConfSolve language, which facilitates not only one-off configuration tasks, but also subsequent re-configurations in which the previous state of the system is taken into account. In a practical setting one does not wish for a re-configuration to deviate too far from the existing state, unless the benefits are substantial. Re-configuration is of crucial importance if automated configuration systems are to gain industry adoption. We present a novel approach to incorporating state-change into ConfSolve while remaining declarative and providing acceptable performance.
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36

Shukur, Zarina. "The automatic assessment of Z specifications." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 1999. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/28622/.

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The need to automate the process of assessing a specification in a learning environment is identified to be one of the fundamental ways to improve the use of formal notation in specifying a real system. General issues involved in building an automatic marking system for computer-based courses are explored. Techniques that have been proposed for assessing a specification are also discussed. By considering the issues and the techniques, we describe how they can be used to build a system that is able to give a quality grade to a specification that is written in the Z language. In the system, four quality factors are taken into consideration; maintainability of a specification (which considers the typographic arrangement of a specification and the specification complexity), and correctness of a specification (which reflects the static correctness and the dynamic correctness of a specification). By using suitable quality metrics for specification maintainability, the results that are produced are compared to some values which can either be absolute values or relative to the model answer. The marks awarded for this factor are based on this comparison. Static correctness is carried out by applying a syntax and type checker. The marks granted for this factor depend on the outcome of the checker. Dynamic correctness is determined by employing a testing technique. In the context of a specification, the behaviour of a system-state, which is represented by so-called state variables, is analysed. The specification is 'executed' by using animation. The marks are given according to the correctness of the output and the final state. The system is implemented within the well-known courseware management system, Ceilidh. There are fundamental differences between Z specifications, and the subject matter of other courses taught using the Ceilidh system (which are mostly computer programming courses). For this reason we take some time in this thesis to explain (in some detail) the incorporation of the system within Ceilidh. The need for the fundamental components (i.e the editor, the syntax and type checker, the animator and the automatic marker) are discussed and described. The system has been used by a group of 13 students who attended a Z course within the School of Computer Science and Information Technology at the University of Nottingham during the 1997-1998 academic year. The students were given a questionnaire about the system. An analysis of these questionnaires shows that the currently implemented tools are beneficial and helpful to the students. We also test the results of the system and compare them with a small selected group of human markers. The testing reveals very encouraging results and shows that the system can mark student scripts with a good degree of accuracy. We conclude that this system can provide a very useful aid for teachers of the Z Specification language.
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37

Pietschker, Andrej. "Automated test generation from algebraic specifications." Thesis, University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, 2002. http://hdl.handle.net/10443/2015.

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This thesis is a contribution to work on the specification-based testing of computing systems. The development of computing systems is a challenging task. A great deal of research has been directed at support for analysis, design and implementation aspects, yielding a wide range of development techniques. However, the crucial area of system testing remains relatively under-explored. Because a project may spend a good part of its budget on testing, even modest improvements to the cost-effectiveness of testing represent substantial improvements in project budgets. Relatively little literature has been devoted to the entire testing process, including specification, generation, execution and validation. Most of the academic literature seems to assume a revolutionary change of the testing framework. On the contrary industry follows a more traditional approach consisting of trusted methods and based on personal experience. There is a need for testing methods that improve the effectiveness of testing but do so at reasonable cost and which do not require a revolutionary change in the development technology. The novel goal of the work described in this thesis is to "lift" traditional testing so that it takes advantage of system specifications. We provide a framework - hepTEsT- which is motivated by this goal. To that end, hepTEsT is a framework consisting of a specification language, a technology for generating tests in accordance with test strategies, a means of applying the tests to the implementations and support for validation of outcomes against the specification-based tests. We will first categorise different testing methodologies and then examine some of the past and present approaches to test data: we develop only the necessary theoretical foundations for hepSPEc and always consider the requirements of testing. The formalism hepSPEc for system description is based upon a well-defined algebraic approach. It utilises a novel approach allowing the description of finite domains in a way suitable for engineering purposes. The engineers' tasks are to provide an adequate description of the system in hepSPEC. The approach proposed in this thesis is grounded in the traditional approach to testing where test data is provided to the system under test and the outcome is compared to the expected outcome. To enhance the capabilities of the framework a general order on test inputs is proposed to be used in test strategies. Traditional testing strategies requiring an order on test inputs are introduced and their realisation in hepTEsT discussed as well as a proposal of new strategies which lend themselves to this particular approach. The manipulation of the specification yields abstract test cases which are then transformed into test cases suitable for the chosen implementation of the system. This transformation, called test reification, is necessary to bridge the "abstraction gap" between the abstract specification-derived tests and the concrete implementation on which the test must run. The transformation is necessary in order for the approach to be practical and is achieved through homomorphisms which are expressed in specially adapted grammars. This transformation is also applied to the generated test outcome and is aimed there at easing test result validation. The utility of the hepTEsT approach is illustrated by means of a simple example, a larger case study and one carried out within the aviation industry.
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38

Winstanley, Adam Christopher. "The elucidation of process-oriented specifications." Thesis, Queen's University Belfast, 1992. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.317536.

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39

Vinter, Ricky Jay. "Evaluating formal specifications : a cognitive approach." Thesis, University of Hertfordshire, 1998. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.268048.

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40

Yoo, Daniel. "Alchemy: Transmuting Base Specifications into Implementations." Digital WPI, 2009. https://digitalcommons.wpi.edu/etd-theses/168.

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Alloy specifications are used to define lightweight models of systems. We present Alchemy, which compiles Alloy specifications into implementations that execute against persistent databases. Alchemy translates a subset of Alloy predicates into imperative update operations, and it converts facts into database integrity constraints that it maintains automatically in the face of these imperative actions. In addition to presenting the semantics and an algorithm for this compilation, we present the tool and outline its application to a non-trivial specification. We also discuss lessons learned about the relationship between Alloy specifications and imperative implementations.
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41

Evans, David Elliot 1971. "Using specifications to check source code." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1994. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/35402.

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42

Benjamin, Zev (Zev A. ). "Runtime verification of object lifetime specifications." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/53102.

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Thesis (M. Eng.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2009.
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 48-49).
This thesis reports on the implementation of a runtime verification system for object lifetime specifications. This system is used to explore and evaluate the expressiveness object lifetime specifications. Object lifetime specifications are program annotations that indicate, in terms of program execution, when objects should be reclaimed. Object lifetime specifications are designed to be used within the context of an object-oriented programming language with automatic storage reclamation (i.e., garbage collection). Our runtime verification system observes program execution and reports objects that are not re-claimed before the end of their specified lifetime. We implement our system with the Java Path Finder model-checking framework. JPF supports modeling non-determinism in programs. We leverage this support to verify all possible thread interleavings when checking user programs.
by Zev Benjamin.
M.Eng.
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43

Harder, Michael (Michael James) 1979. "Improving test suites via generated specifications." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2002. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/87232.

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Thesis (M.Eng. and S.B.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2002.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 69-75).
by Michael Harder.
M.Eng.and S.B.
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44

Karaman, Sertac. "Optimal planning with temporal logic specifications." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/50573.

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Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 2009.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 117-121).
Most of the current uninhabitated Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are individually monitored, commanded and controlled by several operators of different expertise. However, looking forward, there has been a recent interest in multiple-UAV systems, in which the system is only provided with the high-level goals and constraints, called the "mission specifications," and asked to navigate the UAVs such that the mission specifications are fulfilled. A crucial part in designing such multiple-UAV systems is the development of coordination and planning algorithms that, given a set of high-level mission specifications as input, can synthesize provably correct and possibly optimal schedules for each of the UAVs. This thesis studies optimal planning problems in a multiple-UAV mission planning setting, where the mission specifications are given in formal languages. The problem is posed as a novel variant of the Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP), in which temporal logics and process algebra are utilized to represent a large class of mission specifications in a systematic way. The thesis is structured in two parts. In the first part, two temporal logics that are remarkably close to the natural language, namely the linear temporal logic LTL-x and the metric temporal logic (MTL), are considered for specification of a large class of temporal and logical constraints in VRPs. Mixed-integer linear programming based algorithms, which solve these variants of the VRP to optimality, are presented. In the second part, process algebra is introduced and used as a candidate for the same purpose.
(cont.) A tree search based anytime algorithm is given; this algorithm is guarranteed to find a best-first feasible solution in polynomial time and improve it to an optimal one in finite time.
by Sertac Karaman.
S.M.
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45

Treharne, Helen Eleri. "Combining control executives and software specifications." Thesis, Royal Holloway, University of London, 2000. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.393072.

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46

Hibberd, Richard Bramwell. "Prototyping Z specifications in extended Lisp." Thesis, Sheffield Hallam University, 2001. http://shura.shu.ac.uk/19788/.

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Much research has identified shortcomings in the Requirements Description to be the key factor in the failure of many software development projects; the development of formal specification techniques and notations allows the unambiguous statement of requirements, against which an implementation can generally be verified or even proved. While this approach will resolve many of the difficulties, it is impossible to formally confirm that such a specification is correct with respect to the intention of the customer; the abstraction that is characteristic of such languages can make the formal specification inaccessible without specialist skills. Z is one such, model-based, specification notation and this thesis reports on a CASE tool, the Z Animator in Lisp, that supports a process of specification validation through animation. A specification in the proprietary ZAL format, a high-level, largely functional, executable notation based on extended Lisp, can be executed by the Animation Engine within the ZAL animation environment. Using a graphical environment running under Microsoft Windows, schemas representing the operations upon the state are animated by populating their inputs, evaluating their predicates and reporting the outcomes to the user; these outcomes can be used to directly update the state, prior to further executions. The animator ensures the consistency of the on-going model state by the execution of the system invariant. The user can identify precisely which elements of the state should be displayed and can thereby focus on the particular areas of interest. This interaction is significantly more accessible to the customer and can be used to explore properties of the specification and thereby confirm, or not, that it exhibits the desired behaviour. This process validates the specification with respect to customer intention. Because the transformation into the proprietary ZAL language can be largely automated, using a companion CASE tool called TranZit, the process supports theiterative development of an improved specification, since at each stage the Z document reflects the system being animated.
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47

Mokarem, David Wayne. "Development of Concrete Shrinkage Performance Specifications." Diss., Virginia Tech, 2003. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/27605.

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During its service life, concrete experiences volume changes. One of the types of deformation experienced by concrete is shrinkage. The four main types of shrinkage associated with concrete are plastic, autogeneous, carbonation and drying shrinkage. The volume changes in concrete due to shrinkage can lead to the cracking of the concrete. In the case of reinforced concrete, the cracking may produce a direct path for chloride ions to reach the reinforcing steel. Once chloride ions reach the steel surface, the steel will corrode, which itself can cause cracking, spalling, and delamination of the concrete. The development of concrete shrinkage performance specifications that limit the amount of drying shrinkage for concrete mixtures typically used by the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) were assessed. Five existing shrinkage prediction models were also assessed to determine the accuracy and precision of each model as it pertains to the VDOT mixtures used in this study. The five models assessed were the ACI 209 Code Model, Bazant B3 Model, CEB90 Code Model, Gardner/Lockman Model, and the Sakata Model. The percentage length change limits for the portland cement concrete mixtures were 0.0300 at 28 days, and 0.0400 at 90 days. For the supplemental cementitious material mixtures, the percentage length change limits were 0.0400 at 28 days, and 0.0500 at 90 days. The CEB90 Code model performed best for the portland cement concrete mixtures, while the Gardner/Lockman Model performed best for the supplemental cementitious material mixtures.
Ph. D.
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48

Mokarem, David W. "Development of Concrete Shrinkage Performance Specifications." Diss., Virginia Tech, 2002. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/27605.

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During its service life, concrete experiences volume changes. One of the types of deformation experienced by concrete is shrinkage. The four main types of shrinkage associated with concrete are plastic, autogeneous, carbonation and drying shrinkage. The volume changes in concrete due to shrinkage can lead to the cracking of the concrete. In the case of reinforced concrete, the cracking may produce a direct path for chloride ions to reach the reinforcing steel. Once chloride ions reach the steel surface, the steel will corrode, which itself can cause cracking, spalling, and delamination of the concrete. The development of concrete shrinkage performance specifications that limit the amount of drying shrinkage for concrete mixtures typically used by the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) were assessed. Five existing shrinkage prediction models were also assessed to determine the accuracy and precision of each model as it pertains to the VDOT mixtures used in this study. The five models assessed were the ACI 209 Code Model, Bazant B3 Model, CEB90 Code Model, Gardner/Lockman Model, and the Sakata Model. The percentage length change limits for the portland cement concrete mixtures were 0.0300 at 28 days, and 0.0400 at 90 days. For the supplemental cementitious material mixtures, the percentage length change limits were 0.0400 at 28 days, and 0.0500 at 90 days. The CEB90 Code model performed best for the portland cement concrete mixtures, while the Gardner/Lockman Model performed best for the supplemental cementitious material mixtures.
Ph. D.
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49

Siregar, Maria Ulfah. "Support for model checking Z specifications." Thesis, University of Sheffield, 2016. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/17776/.

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One of deficiencies in the Z tools is that there is limited support for model checking Z specifications. To build a model checker directly for a Z specification would take considerable effort and time due to the abstraction of the language. Translating inputs of a Z specification into a language that an existing model checker tool accepts is an alternative method. Researchers at the University of Sheffield implemented a translation tool which took a Z specification and translated it into the input for the Symbolic Analysis Laboratory (SAL) tool, a framework for combining different tools for abstraction, program analysis, theorem proving and model checking, which they called Z2SAL. In this paper, support for model checking Z specifications is discussed, in which the ability of the existing Z2SAL is extended. This support includes a translation for generic constant and schema calculus. Instead of translating these aspects of the Z language into the SAL language as Z2SAL does, a Z specification containing these two notations will be pre-processed,in which a generic constant definition will be redefined to its equivalent axiomatic definition, and schema calculus will be expanded to a new schema definition. This paper discusses the implementation of these types of support, and illustration of some working examples. The discussion also includes other several issues related to a new approach in translating Z functions and constants in SAL language, which originates from the type incompatibility obtained during execution by the SAL tool, an approach to a SAL translation of embedded theorems on Z specifications, and a manual experiment on applying an abstraction on Z specifications. Results have been gathered during our experiments with the implemented support. Several of these results could be translated by Z2SAL and be executed by the SAL tool.
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50

Miarka, Ralph. "Inconsistency and underdefinedness in Z specifications." Thesis, University of Kent, 2002. https://kar.kent.ac.uk/13692/.

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Abstract In software engineering, formal methods are meant to capture the requirements of software yet to be built using notations based on logic and mathematics. The formal language Z is such a notation. It has been found that in large projects inconsistencies are inevitable. It is also said, however, that consistency is required for Z specifications to have any useful meaning. Thus, it seems, Z is not suitable for large projects. Inconsistencies are a fact of life. We are constantly challenged by inconsistencies and we are able to manage them in a useful manner. Logicians recognised this fact and developed so called paraconsistent logics to continue useful, non-trivial, reasoning in the presence of inconsistencies. Quasi-classical logic is one representative of these logics. It has been designed such that the logical connectives behave in a classical manner and that standard inference rules are valid. As such, users of logic, like software engineers, should find it easy to work with QCL. The aim of this work is to investigate the support that can be given to reason about inconsistent Z specifications using quasi-classical logic. Some of the paraconsistent logics provide an extra truth value which we use to handle underdefinedness in Z. It has been observed that it is sometimes useful to combine the guarded and precondition approach to allow the representation of both refusals and underspecification. This work contributes to the development of quasi-classical logic by providing a notion of strong logical equivalence, a method to reason about equality in QCL and a tableau-based theorem prover. The use of QCL to analyse Z specifications resulted in a refined notion of operation applicability. This also led to a revised refinement condition for applicability. Furthermore, we showed that QCL allows fewer but more useful inferences in the presence of inconsistency. Our work on handling underdefinedness in Z led to an improved schema representation combining the precondition and the guarded interpretation in Z. Our inspiration comes from a non-standard three-valued interpretation of operation applicability. Based on this semantics, we developed a schema calculus. Furthermore, we provide refinement rules based on the concept that refinement means reduction of underdefinedness. We also show that the refinement conditions extend the standard rules for both the guarded and precondition approach in Z.
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