Re: language for (abstract) semantic specification

William Clodius wrote:


> nmm1@cus.cam.ac.uk (Nick Maclaren) wrote
>
>>Daniel Yokomiso <daniel_yokomiso@yahoo.com.br> wrote:
>><snip>
>>
>>>Wasn't VDM-SL designed for "real use"? It's been a while since I studied it
>>>but IIRC it's quite capable.
>>
>>Yes. I don't know of any 'real' software project that it was used for,
>>but that might say more about my ignorance than anything else.
>
>
> I believe that there was an attempt to use it for the ISO Modula II
> definition, but they coulddn't get the tools completed to validate the
> VDM description. One of several problems with a highly ambitious
> effort.


The VDM language was also used to produce the formal semantics for the
ISO standardized language SDL (Specification and Description
Language). This use of VDM was even part of the SDL standard (SDL
version 1992). As far as I know, only partial type-checking was done
for the specification. The current SDL version (SDL'2000) is
formalized using the notation of Abstract State Machines (ASM).


I did not see the start of this thread, but maybe ASM is the answer to
the question. See e.g. http://www.eecs.umich.edu/gasm/ There is even a
compiler-related project with ASMs called Montages. BTW, there are
several tools handling ASMs.


Please note that ASMs were formerly called Evolving Algebras.


Best regards,
        Andreas

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