The proceedings of the fourth Vienna Development Method Symposium, VDM '91, are published here in two volumes. Previous VDM symposia were held in 1987 (LNCS 252), 1988 (LNCS 328), and 1990 (LNCS 428). The VDM symposia have been organized by the VDM Europe, formed in 1985 as an advisory board sponsored by the Commission of the European Communities. The VDM Europe working group consisted of reasearchers, software engineers, and programmers, all interested in prommoting the industrial usage of formal methods for software development. The fourth VDM symposium presented not only VDM but also a large number of other methods for formal software development. Volume 1 contains the conference contributions. It has four parts: contributions of invited speakers, papers, project reports, and tools demonstration abstracts. The emphasis is on methods and calculi for development, verification and verification tools support, experiences from doing developments, and the associated theoretical problems. Volume2 contains four introductory tutorials (on LARCH, Refinement Calculus, VDM, and RAISE) and four advanced tutorials (on ABEL, PROSPECTRA, THE B Method, and The Stack). They present a comprehensive account of the state of theart.

In this book the author explains domain engineering and the underlying science, and he then shows how we can derive requirements prescriptions for computing systems from domain descriptions. A further motivation is to present domain descriptions, requirements prescriptions, and software design specifications as mathematical quantities. The author's maxim is that before software can be designed we must understand its requirements, and before requirements can be prescribed we must analyse and describe the domain for which the software is intended. He does this by focusing on what it takes to analyse and describe domains. By a domain we understand a rationally describable discrete dynamics segment of human activity, of natural and man-made artefacts, examples include road, rail and air transport, container terminal ports, manufacturing, trade, healthcare, and urban planning. The book addresses issues of seemingly large systems, not small algorithms, and it emphasizes descriptions as formal, mathematical quantities. This is the first thorough monograph treatment of the new software engineering phase of software development, one that precedes requirements engineering. It emphasizes a methodological approach by treating, in depth, analysis and description principles, techniques and tools. It does this by basing its domain modeling on fundamental philosophical principles, a view that is new for a computer science monograph. The book will be of value to computer scientists engaged with formal specifications of software. The author reveals this as a field of interesting problems, most chapters include pointers to further study and exercises drawn from practical engineering and science challenges. The text is supported by a primer to the formal specification language RSL and extensive indexes.

This book is dedicated to the memory of Ole-Johan Dahl who passed away in June 2002 at the age of 70, shortly after he had received, together with his colleague Kristen Nygaard, the ACM Alan M. Turing Award: "For ideas fundamental to the emergence of object-oriented programming, through their design of the programming languages Simula I and Simula 67." This Festschrift opens with a short biography and a bibliography recollecting Ole-Johan Dahl's life and work, as well as a paper he wrote entitled: "The Birth of Object-Orientation: the Simula Languages." The main part of the book consists of 14 scientific articles written by leading scientists who worked with Ole-Johan Dahl as students or colleagues. In accordance with the scope of Ole-Johan Dahl's work and the book's title, the articles are centered around object-orientation and formal methods.

What is this Book About? At the beginning of the 21st century, computer systems—and especially so- ware—play an important role in our society. Software is contained in virtually every technical device that we use in everyday life (e.g., cellular phones and cars). Furthermore, computers and their software are used for leisure purposes at home (the Internet and computer games), at the office (e.g., writing letters and order processing), and for more complicated tasks such as controlling steel plants or insuring flight safety. Therefore, the quality of software (e.g., its correctness, re- ability, and efficiency) has become important not only in the context of critical systems (e.g., nuclear power plants) but also for our entire society, from business to leisure. Software engineering is the practical application of scientific knowledge for the economical production and use of high-quality software [Pomberger96]. The discipline aims at developing methods, techniques, tools, and standards to fulfill these aims. The number of methods and tools available to the software engineer nowadays is overwhelming; nevertheless, many software projects fail—that is, do not meet their schedules, are over budget, do not meet the user needs, or simply have considerable quality defects. The numerous possible explanations for this situation include poor project management, unsuitable methods and tools used in the project, and poorly developed skills of the participating software engineers.

"The proceedings of the fourth Vienna Development Method Symposium, VDM '91, are published here in two volumes. Previous VDM symposia were held in 1987 (LNCS 252), 1988 (LNCS 328), and 1990 (LNCS 428). The VDM symposia have been organized by the VDM Europe, formed in 1985 as an advisory board sponsored by the Commission of the European Communities. The VDM Europe working group consisted of reasearchers, software engineers, and programmers, all interested in prommoting the industrial usage of formal methods for software development. The fourth VDM symposium presented not only VDM but also a large number of other methods for formal software development. Volume 1 contains the conference contributions. It has four parts: contributions of invited speakers, papers, project reports, and tools demonstration abstracts. The emphasis is on methods and calculi for development, verification and verification tools support, experiences from doing developments, and the associated theoretical problems. Volume2 contains four introductory tutorials (on LARCH, Refinement Calculus, VDM, and RAISE) and four advanced tutorials (on ABEL, PROSPECTRA, The B Method, and The Stack). They present a comprehensive account of the state of the art."--PUBLISHER'S WEBSITE.

This collection of essays reflects the breadth of research in computer science. Following a biography of Robin Milner it contains sections on semantic foundations; programming logic; programming languages; concurrency; and mobility.

"The proceedings of the fourth Vienna Development Method Symposium, VDM '91, are published here in two volumes. Previous VDM symposia were held in 1987 (LNCS 252), 1988 (LNCS 328), and 1990 (LNCS 428). The VDM symposia have been organized by the VDM Europe, formed in 1985 as an advisory board sponsored by the Commission of the European Communities. The VDM Europe working group consisted of reasearchers, software engineers, and programmers, all interested in prommoting the industrial usage of formal methods for software development. The fourth VDM symposium presented not only VDM but also a large number of other methods for formal software development. Volume 1 contains the conference contributions. It has four parts: contributions of invited speakers, papers, project reports, and tools demonstration abstracts. The emphasis is on methods and calculi for development, verification and verification tools support, experiences from doing developments, and the associated theoretical problems. Volume2 contains four introductory tutorials (on LARCH, Refinement Calculus, VDM, and RAISE) and four advanced tutorials (on ABEL, PROSPECTRA, The B Method, and The Stack). They present a comprehensive account of the state of the art."--PUBLISHER'S WEBSITE.

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