Do Formal Methodists have Bell-Shaped Heads? (Invited Paper)

Data networking has not been kind to formal methods. The Internet’s birth gave rise to an intense culture war between the bell-heads and the net-heads, which the net-heads have largely won. In this area formal methodists have long been seen as the humourless enforcers of the defeated bell-heads. The result: formal methods are not a part of the mainstream of data networking and are largely relegated to the the thankless task of reverse engineering (security-related protocols are perhaps the rare exception). If we want to move beyond this situation we must build tools that enhance the ability to engage in the Internet culture — tools that encourage community-based development of open-source systems and embrace the open-ended exploration of design spaces that are only partially understood. 1 State the Problem Before Describing the Solution? The title of this section, sans question mark, is the same as a one-page put-down of the culture of computer networking written by Leslie Lamport in 1978 [7]. The idea is simple and seductive. Start with a specification of the problem that is independent of any solution! Then describe your solution and show that it solves the problem. What could be more simple? Motherhoo