When designing a complex system, Object-Z is a powerful logic-based language for modeling the system state aspects, and timed automata is an excellent graph-based notation for capturing timed control behaviour of the system. This paper presents an effective combination of the two techniques with novel composition and communication mechanisms. The combined notation enhances Object-Z with realtime modeling capability and also extends timed automata with enhanced structure and state modeling features.

Summary form only given. The Java programming language supports concurrency. Concurrent programs are harder to verify than their sequential counterparts due to their inherent nondeterminism and a number of specific concurrency problems such as interference and deadlock. In previous work, we proposed a method for verifying concurrent Java components based on a mix of code inspection, static analysis tools, and the ConAn testing tool. The method was derived from an analysis of concurrency failures in Java components, but was not applied in practice. In this paper, we explore the method by applying it to an implementation of the well-known readers-writers problem and a number of mutants of that implementation. We only apply it to a single, well-known example, and so we do not attempt to draw any general conclusions about the applicability or effectiveness of the method. However, the exploration does point out several strengths and weaknesses in the method, which enable us to fine-tune the method before we carry out a more formal evaluation on other, more realistic components.

A successful and comprehensive multidimensional categorization system for educational software would benefit many facets of the software life cycle. We consider the categorization of one particular dimension, namely, student-computer interactions.

In this paper, we present a formal model of Java concurrency using the Object-Z specification language. This model captures the Java thread synchronization concepts of locking, blocking, waiting and notification. In the model, we take a viewpoints approach, first capturing the role of the objects and threads, and then taking a system view where we capture the way the objects and threads cooperate and communicate. As a simple illustration of how the model can, in general be applied, we use Object-Z inheritance to integrate the model with the classical producer-consumer system to create a specification directly incorporating the Java concurrency constructs.

Despite the existence of a large range of software to support the teaching of mathematics, most mathematical educational software makes only limited use of the potential user interfaces. In particular, students are typically restricted in how they can express their working and solutions. This paper looks at the issue of how to design mathematical educational software to help students solve problems in a natural unrestricted manner. The focus is on describing, through a case study, a process for designing software that mirrors the pencil and paper way students traditionally solve mathematical problems.

Abstract Objects can be viewed as entities reacting concurrently with their environment through the sending and receiving of messages. In this paper a model for such reactive objects is constructed where messages may be blocked either by the object or by the environment. This model differentiates between output messages controlled by the object, and input messages controlled by the environment. The model is applied to define an object compatibility lattice structure enabling the construction of objects satisfying best possible compatibility requirements.

When modelling a large and complex system, clarity of the specification becomes an important factor. In object-oriented specification, the states of individual objects are captured by the values of their attributes. Frequently however, there are dependencies between the attributes of an object. An appropriate indication of which attributes are primary (independent) and which are secondary (dependent) can add significantly to clarity. This paper details the notion of secondary attributes, their roles and implications in formal object-oriented specification.

Article Free Access Share on Formal techniques for OO software development Authors: Pierre America Philips Research Laboratories Philips Research LaboratoriesView Profile , Derek Coleman HP-Lab Bristol HP-Lab BristolView Profile , Roger Duke University of Queensland University of QueenslandView Profile , Doug Lea Syracuse University & SUNY-Oswego Syracuse University & SUNY-OswegoView Profile , Gary Leavens Iowa State University Iowa State UniversityView Profile Authors Info & Claims OOPSLA '91: Conference proceedings on Object-oriented programming systems, languages, and applicationsNovember 1991 Pages 166–170https://doi.org/10.1145/117954.117967Published:01 November 1991Publication History 2citation376DownloadsMetricsTotal Citations2Total Downloads376Last 12 Months13Last 6 weeks1 Get Citation AlertsNew Citation Alert added!This alert has been successfully added and will be sent to:You will be notified whenever a record that you have chosen has been cited.To manage your alert preferences, click on the button below.Manage my AlertsNew Citation Alert!Please log in to your account Save to BinderSave to BinderCreate a New BinderNameCancelCreateExport CitationPublisher SiteeReaderPDF