6,798 research outputs found
Using Ada: The deeper challenges
The Ada programming language and the associated Ada Programming Support Environment (APSE) and Ada Run Time Environment (ARTE) provide the potential for significant life-cycle cost reductions in computer software development and maintenance activities. The Ada programming language itself is standardized, trademarked, and controlled via formal validation procedures. Though compilers are not yet production-ready as most would desire, the technology for constructing them is sufficiently well known and understood that time and money should suffice to correct current deficiencies. The APSE and ARTE are, on the other hand, significantly newer issues within most software development and maintenance efforts. Currently, APSE and ARTE are highly dependent on differing implementer concepts, strategies, and market objectives. Complex and sophisticated mission-critical computing systems require the use of a complete Ada-based capability, not just the programming language itself; yet the range of APSE and ARTE features which must actually be utilized can vary significantly from one system to another. As a consequence, the need to understand, objectively evaluate, and select differing APSE and ARTE capabilities and features is critical to the effective use of Ada and the life-cycle efficiencies it is intended to promote. It is the selection, collection, and understanding of APSE and ARTE which provide the deeper challenges of using Ada for real-life mission-critical computing systems. Some of the current issues which must be clarified, often on a case-by-case basis, in order to successfully realize the full capabilities of Ada are discussed
Automatic Verification of Transactions on an Object-Oriented Database
In the context of the object-oriented data model, a compiletime approach is given that provides for a significant reduction of the amount of run-time transaction overhead due to integrity constraint checking. The higher-order logic Isabelle theorem prover is used to automatically prove which constraints might, or might not be violated by a given transaction in a manner analogous to the one used by Sheard and Stemple (1989) for the relational data model. A prototype transaction verification tool has been implemented, which automates the semantic mappings and generates proof goals for Isabelle. Test results are discussed to illustrate the effectiveness of our approach
Advanced flight deck/crew station simulator functional requirements
This report documents a study of flight deck/crew system research facility requirements for investigating issues involved with developing systems, and procedures for interfacing transport aircraft with air traffic control systems planned for 1985 to 2000. Crew system needs of NASA, the U.S. Air Force, and industry were investigated and reported. A matrix of these is included, as are recommended functional requirements and design criteria for simulation facilities in which to conduct this research. Methods of exploiting the commonality and similarity in facilities are identified, and plans for exploiting this in order to reduce implementation costs and allow efficient transfer of experiments from one facility to another are presented
Designing Normative Theories for Ethical and Legal Reasoning: LogiKEy Framework, Methodology, and Tool Support
A framework and methodology---termed LogiKEy---for the design and engineering
of ethical reasoners, normative theories and deontic logics is presented. The
overall motivation is the development of suitable means for the control and
governance of intelligent autonomous systems. LogiKEy's unifying formal
framework is based on semantical embeddings of deontic logics, logic
combinations and ethico-legal domain theories in expressive classic
higher-order logic (HOL). This meta-logical approach enables the provision of
powerful tool support in LogiKEy: off-the-shelf theorem provers and model
finders for HOL are assisting the LogiKEy designer of ethical intelligent
agents to flexibly experiment with underlying logics and their combinations,
with ethico-legal domain theories, and with concrete examples---all at the same
time. Continuous improvements of these off-the-shelf provers, without further
ado, leverage the reasoning performance in LogiKEy. Case studies, in which the
LogiKEy framework and methodology has been applied and tested, give evidence
that HOL's undecidability often does not hinder efficient experimentation.Comment: 50 pages; 10 figure
Learning-Assisted Automated Reasoning with Flyspeck
The considerable mathematical knowledge encoded by the Flyspeck project is
combined with external automated theorem provers (ATPs) and machine-learning
premise selection methods trained on the proofs, producing an AI system capable
of answering a wide range of mathematical queries automatically. The
performance of this architecture is evaluated in a bootstrapping scenario
emulating the development of Flyspeck from axioms to the last theorem, each
time using only the previous theorems and proofs. It is shown that 39% of the
14185 theorems could be proved in a push-button mode (without any high-level
advice and user interaction) in 30 seconds of real time on a fourteen-CPU
workstation. The necessary work involves: (i) an implementation of sound
translations of the HOL Light logic to ATP formalisms: untyped first-order,
polymorphic typed first-order, and typed higher-order, (ii) export of the
dependency information from HOL Light and ATP proofs for the machine learners,
and (iii) choice of suitable representations and methods for learning from
previous proofs, and their integration as advisors with HOL Light. This work is
described and discussed here, and an initial analysis of the body of proofs
that were found fully automatically is provided
Reasoning about order errors in interaction
Reliability of an interactive system depends on users as well as the device implementation. User errors can result in catastrophic system
failure. However, work from the field of cognitive science shows that
systems can be designed so as to completely eliminate whole classes of
user errors. This means that user errors should also fall within the remit
of verification methods. In this paper we demonstrate how the HOL
theorem prover [7] can be used to detect and prove the absence of the
family of errors known as order errors. This is done by taking account
of the goals and knowledge of users. We provide an explicit generic user
model which embodies theory from the cognitive sciences about the way
people are known to act. The user model describes action based on user
communication goals. These are goals that a user adopts based on their
knowledge of the task they must perform to achieve their goals. We use
a simple example of a vending machine to demonstrate the approach.
We prove that a user does achieve their goal for a particular design of
machine. In doing so we demonstrate that communication goal based
errors cannot occur
Compensation methods to support generic graph editing: A case study in automated verification of schema requirements for an advanced transaction model
Compensation plays an important role in advanced transaction models, cooperative work, and workflow systems. However, compensation operations are often simply written as a^−1 in
transaction model literature. This notation ignores any operation parameters, results, and side effects. A schema designer intending to use an advanced transaction model is expected (required) to write correct method code. However, in the days of cut-and-paste, this is much easier said than done. In this paper, we demonstrate the feasibility of using an off-the-shelf theorem prover (also called a proof assistant) to perform automated verification of compensation requirements for an OODB schema. We report on the results of a case study in verification for a particular advanced transaction model that supports cooperative applications. The case study is based on an OODB schema that provides generic graph editing functionality for the creation, insertion, and manipulation of nodes and links
Compensation methods to support cooperative applications: A case study in automated verification of schema requirements for an advanced transaction model
Compensation plays an important role in advanced transaction models, cooperative work and workflow systems. A schema designer is typically required to supply for each transaction another transaction to semantically undo the effects of . Little attention has been paid to the verification of the desirable properties of such operations, however. This paper demonstrates the use of a higher-order logic theorem prover for verifying that compensating transactions return a database to its original state. It is shown how an OODB schema is translated to the language of the theorem prover so that proofs can be performed on the compensating transactions
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