Extending rely-guarantee thinking to handle real-time scheduling

The reference point for developing any artefact is its specification; to develop software for- mally, a formal specification is required. For sequential programs, pre and post conditions (together with abstract objects) suffice; rely and guarantee conditions extend the scope of formal development approaches to tackle concurrency. In addition, real-time systems need ways of both requiring progress and relating that progress to some notion of time. This paper extends rely-guarantee ideas to cope with specifications of—and assumptions about— real-time schedulers. Furthermore it shows how the approach helps identify and specify fault-tolerance aspects of such schedulers by systematically challenging the assumption

Automated proof checking in introductory discrete mathematics classes

Thesis: M. Eng., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2013.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (page 61).Mathematical rigor is an essential concept to learn in the study of computer science. In the process of learning to write math proofs, instructors are heavily involved in giving feedback about correct and incorrect proofs. Computerized feedback in this area can ease the burden on instructors and help students learn more efficiently. Several software packages exist that can verify proofs written in specific programming languages; these tools have support for some basic topics that undergraduates learn, but not all. In this thesis, we develop libraries and proof automation for introductory combinatorics and probability concepts using Coq, an interactive theorem proving language.by Andrew J. Haven.M. Eng

Formal specification techniques for promoting software modularity, enhancing documentation, and testing specifications

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 1994.Includes bibliographical references (p. 173-175).by Yang Meng Tan.Ph.D