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To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jss.2009.09.039 Byline: Ian Bayley, Hong Zhu Keywords: Design patterns; Formal specification; Predicate logic; Graphic modeling; Sequence diagrams; Variants of patterns Abstract: The formal specification of design patterns is widely recognized as being vital to their effective and correct use in software development. It can clarify the concepts underlying patterns, eliminate ambiguity and thereby lay a solid foundation for tool support. This paper further advances a formal meta-modeling approach that uses first-order predicate logic to specify design patterns. In particular, it specifies both structural and behavioural features of design patterns and systematically captures the variants in a well-structured format. The paper reports a case study involving the formal specification of all 23 patterns in the Gang of Four catalog. It demonstrates that the approach improves the accuracy of pattern specifications by covering variations and clarifying the ambiguous parts of informal descriptions. Author Affiliation: Department of Computing and Electronics, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford OX33 1HX, UK Article History: Received 1 March 2009; Revised 6 July 2009; Accepted 22 September 2009

In the area of software engineering there have been very few efforts to automate the translation from specifications written in natural language to the formal specification languages. Writing of the specifications in natural language is always depending on context and it is commonly vagueness; this represents the major reasons of the challenge. This paper discusses the design of a tool for translating a software specification written in natural language into a formal specification. We apply controlled natural language that limits the syntax and semantics when the natural language statements been written by proposing structured natural language (SNL) to avoid the ambiguity problem. The tool uses basic information about the operation schemas and statements describing the specification of the system written by a group of user collaboratively as input. The output of the tool is a translation and interpreting of the specification statements into equivalent statements in LATEX form, which are compiled to produce an equivalent statements in Z. Collaborative writing, formal specification, machine translation, Z, INTRODUCTION The natural language has remained as practiced choice to specify the software specification because formal specification languages are not easy to master (1). Informal software specification normally has a [...]

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jss.2005.12.019 Byline: Martin Lopez-Nores, Jose Pazos-Arias, Jorge Garcia-Duque, Yolanda Blanco-Fernandez, Manuel Ramos-Cabrer, Alberto Gil-Solla, Ana Fernandez-Vilas, Rebeca Diaz-Redondo Keywords: Multiuser systems; Interaction patterns; Formal specification Abstract: The development of multiuser and distributed software systems faces the difficulty to program the applications correctly, in a way that guarantees the desired interaction among the users. Motivated by experiences with collaborative t-learning services (i.e. multiuser educational services over Interactive TV), this paper presents a solution to that problem, based on supplementing visual development with formal specification techniques. As a contribution to the development of interactive systems, a software process is introduced that helps defining the separate and the conjoint behavior of different users, incrementally and using highly-accessible formalisms. Author Affiliation: Department of Telematics Engineering, University of Vigo, Spain Article History: Received 29 July 2005; Revised 8 November 2005; Accepted 17 December 2005

Byline: HENRIKAS PRANEVICIUS (1) Keywords: Formal specification; ESTELLE/Ag specification; distributed system; validation; verification; logic-based programming; knowledge representation model; expert system Abstract: The paper deals with the problems that arise while developing software of such distributed systems as real-time, computer network protocols and distributed information-processing systems. In the introduction, some essential peculiarities typical of distributed systems (DS) and a general scheme for developing such systems are presented. The main idea of this paper is the use of a piece-linear aggregate mathematical method for formal specification, simulation and validation of DS. The main advantage of this approach is that it integrates two tasks of differing nature, i.e. simulation and correctness analysis of specification, on the basis of a single specification. The method of a transformation of aggregate specification to the first-order predicates and its further use for the correctness analysis of the aggregate specification using logic-based programming will also be presented. It will also be shown how to transform an informal description of system functioning to aggregate specification using production rules. The presented methods are explained using illustrative examples. Author Affiliation: (1) Kaunas University of Technology, Studentu 50, Kaunas, LT-3028, Lithuania Article History: Registration Date: 29/09/2004

Byline: Paulo Leitao, Armando W. Colombo, Francisco Restivo Distributed manufacturing control systems, such as Holonic Control Systems (HCSs), are difficult to apprehend and to design, due to the presence of many autonomous, concurrent and asynchronous activities. A formal specification methodology allowing to understand, to synthesise the system specifications and to validate the correctness of their models would play a key role in its design and later in its implementation. This paper presents an approach to the formal specification of HCSs based on high-level Petri nets. The proposed approach is tested in the specification of the ADACOR HCS.