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Part of the book series: IFIP State-of-the-Art Reports ((IFIP))

Abstract

The basic components of any specification language include: constructs for specifying the properties of individual program components such as types and functions; structuring mechanisms for building large specifications in a modular fashion; a description of the semantics of the language; mechanisms for performing proofs of properties of specifications; a notion of refinement of specifications; and a way of relating specifications to programs written in a programming language. These topics are discussed in other chapters of this book, and in each case there are various alternatives to choose from. To take a simple example, the properties of functions may be specified using equations or using first-order (or even higher-order) formulas as axioms.

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© 1999 IFIP International Federation for Information Processing

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Sannella, D., Wirsing, M. (1999). Specification Languages. In: Astesiano, E., Kreowski, HJ., Krieg-Brückner, B. (eds) Algebraic Foundations of Systems Specification. IFIP State-of-the-Art Reports. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-59851-7_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-59851-7_8

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-64151-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-59851-7

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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