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Toward formal development of programs from algebraic specifications: parameterisation revisited

Donald Sannella, Stefan Sokolowski and Andrzej Tarlecki

Abstract: Parameterisation is an important mechanism for structuring programs and specifications into modular units. The interplay between parameterisation (of programs and of specifications) and specification (of parameterised and of non-parameterised programs) is anaylsed, exposing important semantic and methodological differences between specifications of parameterised programs and parameterised specifications. The extension of parameterisation mechanisms to the higher-order case is considered, both for parameterised programs and parameterised specifications, and the methodological consequences of such an extension are explored.

A specification formalism with parameterisation of an arbitrary order is presented. Its denotational-style semantics is accompanied by an inference system for proving that an object satisfies a specification. The formalism includes the basic specification-building operations of the ASL specification language and is institution independent.

LFCS report ECS-LFCS-92-222

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