Tool Support For System Specification Development And Verification

The correct development of large / com plex pieces of software demands a thorough structuring of the design process. In a first phase the requirements engineering is relevant for capturing the relevant functionality and its adequate formalization in precise mathematical definitions. Prototyping can can be used as a means for checking the functional behaviour at this early stage of development. The ade quate specification resulting from the first phase is then the basis for the second phase which comprises the derivation of an implementation. This phase requires the use of formal methods and tools to verify/validate the implementation. A prerequisite for applying this approach is to have a suitable mechanical support. This volume contains the proceedings of the International Workshop Tool Support for System Specification, Development and Verification organized June 1 - 4, 1998, in Malente, Germany. This workshop is the third in a series of events devoted to this topic. The first two workshops were held in 1994 in Kiel and 1996 in Bremen, Germany. The aim of this workshop is to provide a forum for researchers interested in the use and development of tools which support the use of mathematical techniques for the specification, development and verification of systems. The workshop covers the spectrum from verification tools to graphical editors and compilers. The program of the workshop included an invited lecture and 26 talks. The invited lecture was given by F.W. von Henke (University ofUlm) on Mechanized formal methods and system design.

By presenting state-of-the-art results in logical reasoning and formal methods in the context of artificial intelligence and AI applications, this book commemorates the 60th birthday of Jörg H. Siekmann. The 30 revised reviewed papers are written by former and current students and colleagues of Jörg Siekmann; also included is an appraisal of the scientific career of Jörg Siekmann entitled "A Portrait of a Scientist: Logics, AI, and Politics." The papers are organized in four parts on logic and deduction, applications of logic, formal methods and security, and agents and planning.

This volume comprises the papers presented at the Third International Andrei Ershov Memorial Conference \Perspectives of System Informatics", Akadem- rodok (Novosibirsk, Russia), July 6{9, 1999. The main goal of the conference was to give an overview of research directions which are decisive for the growth of major areas of research activities in system informatics. The conference was the third one in the line. The r st and second inter- tionalconferences\PerspectivesofSystemInformatics"wereheldinNovosibirsk, Akademgorodok, in May, 1991, and June, 1996, respectively. Both conferences gathered a wide spectrum of specialists and were undoubtedly very successful. The third conferenceincluded many of the subjects of the second conference, such as theoretical computer science, programming methodology, new infor- tiontechnologies,andthepromising eldofarti cialintelligence|asimportant components of system informatics. The style of the second conference was p- served to a certain extent in that there were a considerable number of invited papers in addition to the contributed papers. However,posters were replaced by short talks mainly given by young researchers.

ETAPS’99 is the second instance of the European Joint Conferences on Theory and Practice of Software. ETAPS is an annual federated conference that was established in 1998 by combining a number of existing and new conferences. This year it comprises ?ve conferences (FOSSACS, FASE, ESOP, CC, TACAS), four satellite workshops (CMCS, AS, WAGA, CoFI), seven invited lectures, two invited tutorials, and six contributed tutorials. The events that comprise ETAPS address various aspects of the system - velopment process, including speci?cation, design, implementation, analysis and improvement. The languages, methodologies and tools which support these - tivities are all well within its scope. Di?erent blends of theory and practice are represented, with an inclination towards theory with a practical motivation on one hand and soundly-based practice on the other. Many of the issues involved in software design apply to systems in general, including hardware systems, and the emphasis on software is not intended to be exclusive.

Making systems easier to use implies increasingly complex management of communication between users and applications. An increasing part of the application program is devoted to the user interface. In order to manage this complexity, it is very important to have tools, notations, and methodologies that support the designer's work during the refinement process from specification to implementation. The purpose of this proceedings of the first (1994) Eurographics workshop on this area is to review the state of the art. It compares the different existing approaches in order to identify the principal requirements and the most suitable notations and methods, and indicates the relevant results.

Software engineering research has di?erent pro?les in Europe and North Am- ica.WhileinNorthAmericathere isalotofknowhowinthepractical,technical, and organizational aspects of software engineering, in Europe the work conc- trates more on foundations and formal modeling of software engineering issues. Bothapproacheshavetheirindividualstrengthsandweaknesses. Researchdriven solelyby practice insoftware engineering runs in the danger ofdevelopinginto a shallow ?eld failing to ?nd a solid scienti?c basis or to contribute substantially to the progress in software engineering. Work concentrating on formal aspects alone is in the danger of becoming too theoretical and isolated from practice so that any transfer into practical application will fail. Substantial progress in software engineering can be achieved, however, by bringing together pragmatic and foundational work in software engineering - search. This can provide a step towards a common scienti?c basis for software engineering that allows us to integrate the various research results, leading to fruitful synergetic e?ects. It will also help to identify critical research paths and to develop an adequate paradigm for the scienti?c discipline of software en- neering. In software and systems engineering it is necessary to distinguish the en- mous di?erence between the dynamics in development we refer to and the l- ited scope assumed by manyof today’ssoftware managerswho stilluse outdated techniques. Many of the unsolved problems associated with the old techniques are symptoms of a lack of formalization and a lack of automation support. It was the goal of this workshop to bring together experts from science and practice in software and systems engineering from North America and Europe.