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Specifications of distributed programs

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Abstract

This paper discusses informal specifications of distributed programs, that is, programs that reside at nodes connected by a network. Such programs often have performance requirements, such as high availability and concurrency, that make it difficult to specify their behavior. These requirements often have an effect on the functional behavior of a program, forcing designers to change their initial expectations. In this paper we show how to give user-oriented specifications of the functional behavior of programs with such requirements. We propose a structure for specifications that distinguishes expected and desirable effects from undesirable ones. We believe that this distinction is an important one for both users and implementers of a system, and that it makes the specifications easier to understand. We illustrate our approach by giving example specifications of several distributed programs that have been described in the literature.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. M.I.T. Laboratory for Computer Science, 02139, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Barbara Liskov & William Weihl

Authors
  1. Barbara Liskov
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  2. William Weihl
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Additional information

Barbara Liskov received the B.A. degree in mathematics from the University of California, Berkeley, and the M.S. and the Ph.D. degrees in computer science from Stanford University, Stanford, California.

From 1968 to 1972, she was associated with the Mitre Corporation, Bedford, MA., where she participated in the design and implementation of the Venus Machine and the Venus Operating System. In 1972, she joined the faculty at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she is currently Professor of Computer Science and Engineering. Her research and teaching interests include programming languages, programming methodology and distributed computing. Her work on data abstraction led to the development of the CLU programming language. At present, her research is concerned with distributed computing. She is developing a new programming language called Argus that supports the execution of robust distributed programs that survive hardware failures.

William Weihl received the S.B. degree in mathematics in 1979. the S.B. and S.M. degrees in computer science in 1980, and the Ph.D. degree in computer science in 1984, all from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge.

He is presently Assistant Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His research interests include distributed systems, programming methodology, programming languages, formal specifications, concurrency control, and faulttolerance.

This research was supported in part by the Advanced Research Projects Agency of the Department of Defense, monitored by the Office of Naval Research under contract N00014-83-K-1025, and in part by the National Science Foundation under grant DCR-8203486

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Liskov, B., Weihl, W. Specifications of distributed programs. Distrib Comput 1, 102–118 (1986). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01786229

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