Elsevier

Science of Computer Programming

Volume 80, Part B, 1 February 2014, Pages 211-222
Science of Computer Programming

Automated verification of design patterns: A case study

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scico.2013.05.007Get rights and content
Under an Elsevier user license
open archive

Highlights

  • The problem of conformance of evolving programs to design decisions motivates this paper.

  • A leading example demonstrates using a tool to fully automate conformance checking.

  • “Javaʼs AWT package conforms to the Composite pattern” is formalized and proven.

  • A tool for specifying visually the pattern and verifying conformance of Java code is shown.

Abstract

Representing design decisions for complex software systems, tracing them to code, and enforcing them throughout the lifecycle are pressing concerns for software architects and developers. To be of practical use, specification and modeling languages for software design need to combine rigor with abstraction and simplicity, and be supported by automated design verification tools that require minimal human intervention. This paper examines closely the use of the visual language of Codecharts for representing design decisions and demonstrate the process of verifying the conformance of a program to the chart. We explicate the abstract semantics of segments of the Java package java.awt as a finite structures, specify the Composite design pattern as a Codechart and unpack it as a set of formulas, and prove that the structure representing the program satisfies the formulas. We also describe a set of tools for modeling design patterns with Codecharts and for verifying the conformance of native (plain) Java programs to the charts.

Keywords

Object-oriented design
Modeling and specification
Automated verification
Visual languages
Design description languages

Cited by (0)