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Using Supplementary Properties to Reduce the Need for Documentation

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Leveraging Applications of Formal Methods, Verification and Validation. Software Engineering (ISoLA 2022)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 13702))

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Abstract

The purpose of programming languages is to instruct computers and to communicate descriptions of computational processes among people. However, a program has to be supplemented by additional documentation using natural language, diagrams, specifications, models, etc. that also serve the purpose of supporting design and validation. A number of languages have been developed for this purpose, with the cost of having to maintain several descriptions. In this paper, we describe how to include supplementary properties in a programming language to reduce the need for additional languages and to reduce the need for additional documentation. Supplementary properties may restrict access to global variables, enforce restrictions on subclasses, specify required interfaces of modules, etc.

From the Algol 60 report :

Was sich überhaupt sagen läßt, läßt sich klar sagen;

und wovon man nicht reden kann, darüber muß man schweigen.

Ludwig Wittgenstein

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Acknowledgement

We would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for useful comments.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, Aarhus University, Aarhus C, Denmark

    Ole Lehrmann Madsen

  2. Department of Informatics, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway

    Birger Møller-Pedersen

Authors
  1. Ole Lehrmann Madsen
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  2. Birger Møller-Pedersen
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ole Lehrmann Madsen .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Limerick, CSIS and Lero, Limerick, Ireland

    Tiziana Margaria

  2. TU Dortmund, Dortmund, Germany

    Bernhard Steffen

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Madsen, O.L., Møller-Pedersen, B. (2022). Using Supplementary Properties to Reduce the Need for Documentation. In: Margaria, T., Steffen, B. (eds) Leveraging Applications of Formal Methods, Verification and Validation. Software Engineering. ISoLA 2022. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 13702. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-19756-7_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-19756-7_4

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