Skip to main content

Towards an Integrated CASE and theorem proving tool for VDM-SL

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Book cover FME '97: Industrial Applications and Strengthened Foundations of Formal Methods (FME 1997)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 1313))

Included in the following conference series:

Abstract

While CASE tools for formal methods have been relatively successful in industry, the up-take of the theorem proving technology has been quite slow. This suggests that more focus should be put on specification notations and pragmatic features of existing CASE tools in building proof support tools. This paper presents a prototype integrated CASE/TP tool which combines the benefits of a general-purpose theorem prover called Isabelle with those of a commercial CASE tool for the VDM-SL formal specification language-the IFAD VDM-SL Toolbox. The integrated tool supports pragmatic test and rigorous proof at the same time. Moreover, the tool supports proofs in the notation of the CASE tool by handling “difficult” constructs such as patterns and cases expressions in an untraditional way using reversible transformations.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. S. Agerholm. Mechanizing program verification in HOL. In Proceedings of the 1991 International Workshop on the HOL Theorem Proving System and Its Applications. IEEE Computer Society Press, 1992. A full version is in Technical Report IR-111, University of Aarhus, Department of Computer Science, Denmark.

    Google Scholar 

  2. S. Agerholm. Translating specifications in VDM-SL to PVS. In J. von Wright, J. Grundy, and J. Harrison, editors, Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Theorem Proving in Higher Order Logics (TPHOLs'96), volume 1125 of Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Springer-Verlag, 1996.

    Google Scholar 

  3. S. Agerholm and J. Frost. An Isabelle-based theorem prover for VDM-SL. In Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Theorem Proving in Higher Order Logics (TPHOLs'97), LNCS. Springer-Verlag, August 1997.

    Google Scholar 

  4. B. Aichernig and P. G. Larsen. A proof obligation generator for VDM-SL. In FME'97, LNCS. Springer-Verlag, September 1997.

    Google Scholar 

  5. H. Barringer, J. H. Cheng, and C. B. Jones. A logic covering undefinedness in program proofs. Acta Informatica, 21:251–269, 1984.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. J. C. Bicarregui, J. S. Fitzgerald, P. A. Lindsay, R. Moore, and B. Ritchie. Proof in VDM: A Practitioner's Guide. FACIT. Springer-Verlag, 1994.

    Google Scholar 

  7. J. H. Cheng. A logic for partial functions. Ph.D. Thesis UMCS-86-7-1, Department of Computer Science, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, England, 1986.

    Google Scholar 

  8. R. Elmstrøm, P. G. Larsen, and P. B. Lassen. The IFAD VDM-SL Toolbox: A practical approach to formal specifications. ACM Sigplan Notices, 29(9):77–80, September 1994.

    Google Scholar 

  9. John Fitzgerald and Peter Corm Larsen. Software System Design: formal methods into practice. Camdridge University Press, The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 2RU, UK, 1997. To appear.

    Google Scholar 

  10. IFAD World Wide Web page. http://www.ifad.dk.

    Google Scholar 

  11. C. B. Jones. Systematic Software Development using VDM Prentice-Hall International Series in Computer Science. Prentice-Hall, 1986.

    Google Scholar 

  12. C. B. Jones, K. D. Jones, P. A. Lindsay, and R. Moore. mural: A Formal Development Support System. Springer-Verlag, 1991.

    Google Scholar 

  13. P. G. Larsen and B. S. Hansen. Semantics for underdetermined expressions. Formal Aspects of Computing, 8(1):47–66, January 1996.

    Google Scholar 

  14. P. Mukherjee. Computer-aided validation of formal specifications. Software Engineering Journal, pages 133–140, July 1995.

    Google Scholar 

  15. L. C. Paulson. Isabelle: A Generic Theorem Prover. Number 828 in Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 1994.

    Google Scholar 

  16. F. Henning and C. Elliott. Higher-order abstract syntax. In Proceedings of the SIGPLAN'88 Conference on Programming Language Design and Implementation, pages 199–208, Atlanta, Georgia, June 1998.

    Google Scholar 

  17. PVS World Wide Web page. http://www.csl.sri.com/pvs/overview.html.

    Google Scholar 

  18. K. J. Ross and P. A. Lindsay. Maintaining consistency under changes to formal specifications. In J.C.P. Woodcock and P.G. Larsen, editors, FME'93: Industrial Strength Formal Methods, pages 558–577. Formal Methods Europe, Springer-Verlag, April 1993. Lecture Notes in Computer Science 670.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

John Fitzgerald Cliff B. Jones Peter Lucas

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 1997 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this paper

Cite this paper

Agerholm, S., Frost, J. (1997). Towards an Integrated CASE and theorem proving tool for VDM-SL. In: Fitzgerald, J., Jones, C.B., Lucas, P. (eds) FME '97: Industrial Applications and Strengthened Foundations of Formal Methods. FME 1997. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 1313. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-63533-5_15

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-63533-5_15

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-63533-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-69593-6

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

Publish with us

Policies and ethics