Your browser does not support JavaScript!
http://iet.metastore.ingenta.com
1887

A formal specification for a hierarchy of collections

A formal specification for a hierarchy of collections

For access to this article, please select a purchase option:

Buy article PDF
£12.50
(plus tax if applicable)
Add to cart
Buy Knowledge Pack
10 articles for £75.00
(plus taxes if applicable)
Add to cart

IET members benefit from discounts to all IET publications and free access to E&T Magazine. If you are an IET member, log in to your account and the discounts will automatically be applied.

Learn more about IET membership 

Recommend Title Publication to library

You must fill out fields marked with: *

Librarian details
Name:*
Email:*
Your details
Name:*
Email:*
Department:*
Why are you recommending this title?
Select reason:
 
 
 
 
 
Software Engineering Journal — Recommend this title to your library

Thank you

Your recommendation has been sent to your librarian.

© The Institution of Electrical Engineers
Published

This paper presents a formal specification for a hierarchy of types similar to the Collection hierarchy presented by the Smalltalk language. The specification method is an extension of VDM supporting the inheritance of specifications, with the property that subtypes are ‘behaviour-compatible’ with their parents. This formalism gives us a clear concept of behaviour compatibility, and is used to justify our hierarchy structure and to compare the inheritance of specifications, adopted here, with the inheritance of implementations, adopted in Smalltalk.

Inspec keywords: inheritance; Vienna development method; formal specification; object-oriented methods

Other keywords: formal specification; inheritance; hierarchy of collections; Collection hierarchy; VDM; behaviour compatibility; Smalltalk

Subjects: Object-oriented programming; Software engineering techniques

References

    1. 1)
      • A. Goldberg , D. Robson . (1983) , Smalltalk-80: the language and its implementation.
    2. 2)
      • J.S. Fitzgerald , C.B. Jones . Modularizing the formal description of a database system. Lect. Notes Comput. Sci. , 307 - 328
    3. 3)
      • S. Danforth , C. Tomlinson . Type theories and object-oriented programming. Comput. Surv. , 1 , 29 - 71
    4. 4)
      • Ierusalimschy, R.: `A method for object-oriented specifications with VDM', Monografias em Ciência da Computação 2/91, 1991, Pontificia Universidade Católica, Departamento de Informática, .
    5. 5)
      • `VDM Specification Language Protostandard', IST/5/50, 1991, BSI.
    6. 6)
      • Ierusalimschy, R.: `O=M: Uma Linguagem Orientada a Objetos para Desenvolvimento Rigoroso de Programas', 1990, PhD thesis, Pontificia Universidade Católica, Departamento de Informática, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
    7. 7)
      • C.B. Jones . (1990) , Systematic software development using VDM.
    8. 8)
      • Bobrow, D., Demichiel, L., Gabriel, R., Keene, S., Kiczales, G., Moon, D.: `Common Lisp object system specification', 88-003, ANSI Common Lisp Document, 1988, X3J13 Standards Committee.
    9. 9)
      • Wegner, P., Zdonik, S.: `Inheritance as an incremental modification mechanism or what like is and isn's like', ECOOP ′88 Proc., 1988, 322, p. 55–77, Lect. Notes Comput. Sci..
    10. 10)
      • J. Dawes . (1991) , The VDM-SL reference guide.
    11. 11)
      • B. Meyer . Eiffel — a language and environment for software engineering. J. Syst. Softw. , 3 , 129 - 146
    12. 12)
      • (1991) , Smalltalk/V Windows — tutorial and programming handbook.
    13. 13)
      • Ierusalimschy, R.: `The O=M programming language', Monografias em Ciência da Computação 3/91, 1991, Pontificia Universidade Católica, .
    14. 14)
      • C.A. Middelburg . Modular structuring of VDM specifications in WSL. Form. Asp. Comput. , 1 , 13 - 47
    15. 15)
      • C. Lunau . Separation of hierarchies in Duo-Talk. J. Obj. Orient. Program. , 2 , 20 - 26
http://iet.metastore.ingenta.com/content/journals/10.1049/sej.1993.0029
Loading

Related content

content/journals/10.1049/sej.1993.0029
pub_keyword,iet_inspecKeyword,pub_concept
6
6
Loading
Print this page
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address