On the execution of high level formal specifications

Executable specifications can serve as prototypes of the specified system and as oracles for automated testing of implementations, and so are more useful than non-executable specifications. Executable specifications can also be debugged in much the same way as programs, allowing errors to be detected and corrected at the specification level rather than in later stages of software development. However, existing executable specification languages often force the specifier to work at a low level of abstraction, which negates many of the advantages of non-executable specifications. This dissertation shows how to execute specifications written at a level of abstraction comparable to that found in specifications written in non-executable specification languages. The key innovation is an algorithm for evaluating and satisfying first order predicate logic assertions written over abstract model types. This is important because many specification languages use such assertions. Some of the features of this algorithm were inspired by techniques from constraint logic programming