Abstract
A data type is often given by an informal model. Its formal specification is an important task, but also difficult and error-prone. Here a methodology for this task is presented. Its steps are, first, the election of a canonical form defining a canonical term algebra; second, a system of sound rewriting rules powerful enough to achieve the syntactical transformations of the canonical term algebra. The final translation of rewriting rules into equations is immediate. The methodology is illustrated by the detailed presentation of a simple example.
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Research partly sponsored by FINEP, CNPq and the French Ministry for Foreign Affairs.
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Veloso, P.A.S. Methodical specification of abstract data types via rewriting systems. International Journal of Computer and Information Sciences 11, 295–323 (1982). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01001954
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01001954