Abstract
Constraint-oriented specification is a style that can be used in some process algebraic formalisms to ‘implement’ the power of a logical conjunction. Although this type of conjunction is usually limited to properties of traces, and therefore to the safety aspects of a specification, it turns out to be an extremely useful tool in realistic applications, where it is used to carry out successive steps of logical refinement in specifications. In this paper we explain this specification style and give examples of its use in the specification language LOTOS. We then proceed with a proposal for a sophistication of the forms of parallel composition and abstraction (hiding) that are used to improve the large scale applicability of this style of specification. We give an example of their use, and discuss some other, related uses of the new operators.
This work was supported in part by the CEC under ESPRIT project 2304 (LOTOSPHERE) and the Dutch Ministry of Education and Sciences under project P2601-85 "OSI Conformance Testing".
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
T. Bolognesi, E. Brinksma, Introduction to the ISO Specification Language LOTOS, Computer Networks and ISDN Systems, vol. 14, nr. 1 (1987) 25–59.
F.P.M. Biemans, P. Blonk, On the Formal Specification and Verification of CIM Architectures Using LOTOS, Computers in Industry 7 (1986), 491–504.
J.A. Bergstra, J.W. Klop, Algebra of Communicating Processes with Abstraction, TCS 37 (1985) 77–121.
E.Brinksma, On the design of Extended LOTOS, doctoral dissertation, University of Twente, 1988.
P.H.J.van Eijk, C.A.Vissers, M.Diaz (eds.), The Formal Description Technique LOTOS, Results of the ESPRIT/SEDOS project, (North-Holland, Amsterdam).
H. Ehrig, B. Mahr, Fundamentals of Algebraic Specification I (Springer-Verlag, Berlin) 1985.
S.Graf, J.Sifakis, An Expressive Logic for a Process Algebra with Silent Actions, RT Cesar nr. 4, Laboratoire de Génie Informatique de Grenoble, December 1986.
C.A.R. Hoare, Programs are predicates, Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. A 312, 475–489 (1984).
C.A.R. Hoare, Communicating Sequential Processes, (Prentice-Hall International) 1985.
ISO, IS7498, Information Processing Systems — Open Systems Interconnection — Basic Reference Model (1984).
ISO, IS8073, Information Processing Systems — Open Systems Interconnection — Connection Oriented Transport Protocol Specification (1985).
L. Lamport, What good is temporal logic?, in: R.E.A. Mason (ed.), Information Processing 83, (North-Holland) 1983, 657–668.
ISO, DIS 8807, Information Processing Systems, Open Systems Interconnection, LOTOS — A Formal Description Technique Based on the Temporal Ordering of Observational Behaviour (September 1987).
ISO, ISO/IEC JTC1/SC6 N4871, Formal description of ISO 8073 in LOTOS (working draft).
G.J. Milne, CIRCAL and the Representation of Communication, Concurrency, and Time, ACM TOPLAS, Vol.7, No.2, April 1985, 270–298.
R. Milner, A Calculus of Communicating Systems, LNCS 92, (Springer-Verlag, Berlin) 1980.
R. Milner, Communication and Concurrency, (Prentice-Hall International) 1989.
A. Pnueli, Specification and development of reactive systems, in: H.-J. Kugler (ed.), Information Processing 86, (North-Holland) 1986, 845–858.
J. Sifakis, A Response to Amir Pnueli's Specification and development of reactive systems, in: H.-J. Kugler (ed.), Information Processing 86, (North-Holland) 1986, 1183–1187.
A.J. Tocher, OSI Transport Service: A Constraint-Oriented Specification in LOTOS (Draft 1), ESPRIT/SEDOS/C1/WP/21/IK, ICL, Kidsgrove, GB, July 1986.
C.A. Vissers G. Scollo, M. van Sinderen, Architecture and Specification Style in Formal Descriptions of Distributed Systems, in: S. Aggarwal, K. Sabnani (eds.), Protocol Specification, testing, and verification, VIII, (North-Holland) 1988, 189–204.
J. Zwiers, Predicates, Predicate Transformers and Refinement, this volume.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1990 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Brinksma, E. (1990). Constraint-oriented specification in a constructive formal description technique. In: de Bakker, J.W., de Roever, W.P., Rozenberg, G. (eds) Stepwise Refinement of Distributed Systems Models, Formalisms, Correctness. REX 1989. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 430. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-52559-9_63
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-52559-9_63
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-52559-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-47035-9
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive