Abstract State Machines 1988-1998: Commented ASM Bibliography

An annotated bibliography of papers which deal with or use Abstract State Machines (ASMs), as of January 1998.Comment: Also maintained as a BibTeX file at http://www.eecs.umich.edu/gasm

Action semantics in retrospect

This paper is a themed account of the action semantics project, which Peter Mosses has led since the 1980s. It explains his motivations for developing action semantics, the inspirations behind its design, and the foundations of action semantics based on unified algebras. It goes on to outline some applications of action semantics to describe real programming languages, and some efforts to implement programming languages using action semantics directed compiler generation. It concludes by outlining more recent developments and reflecting on the success of the action semantics project

Matrix Code

Matrix Code gives imperative programming a mathematical semantics and heuristic power comparable in quality to functional and logic programming. A program in Matrix Code is developed incrementally from a specification in pre/post-condition form. The computations of a code matrix are characterized by powers of the matrix when it is interpreted as a transformation in a space of vectors of logical conditions. Correctness of a code matrix is expressed in terms of a fixpoint of the transformation. The abstract machine for Matrix Code is the dual-state machine, which we present as a variant of the classical finite-state machine.Comment: 39 pages, 19 figures; extensions and minor correction

Codes as fractals and noncommutative spaces

We consider the CSS algorithm relating self-orthogonal classical linear codes to q-ary quantum stabilizer codes and we show that to such a pair of a classical and a quantum code one can associate geometric spaces constructed using methods from noncommutative geometry, arising from rational noncommutative tori and finite abelian group actions on Cuntz algebras and fractals associated to the classical codes.Comment: 18 pages LaTeX, one png figur

Using formal methods to support testing

Formal methods and testing are two important approaches that assist in the development of high quality software. While traditionally these approaches have been seen as rivals, in recent years a new consensus has developed in which they are seen as complementary. This article reviews the state of the art regarding ways in which the presence of a formal specification can be used to assist testing

Odeint - Solving ordinary differential equations in C++

Many physical, biological or chemical systems are modeled by ordinary differential equations (ODEs) and finding their solution is an every-day-task for many scientists. Here, we introduce a new C++ library dedicated to find numerical solutions of initial value problems of ODEs: odeint (www.odeint.com). odeint is implemented in a highly generic way and provides extensive interoperability at top performance. For example, due to it's modular design it can be easily parallized with OpenMP and even runs on CUDA GPUs. Despite that, it provides a convenient interface that allows for a simple and easy usage.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur

An Improved Algorithm for Generating Database Transactions from Relational Algebra Specifications

Alloy is a lightweight modeling formalism based on relational algebra. In prior work with Fisler, Giannakopoulos, Krishnamurthi, and Yoo, we have presented a tool, Alchemy, that compiles Alloy specifications into implementations that execute against persistent databases. The foundation of Alchemy is an algorithm for rewriting relational algebra formulas into code for database transactions. In this paper we report on recent progress in improving the robustness and efficiency of this transformation

On Modelling and Analysis of Dynamic Reconfiguration of Dependable Real-Time Systems

This paper motivates the need for a formalism for the modelling and analysis of dynamic reconfiguration of dependable real-time systems. We present requirements that the formalism must meet, and use these to evaluate well established formalisms and two process algebras that we have been developing, namely, Webpi and CCSdp. A simple case study is developed to illustrate the modelling power of these two formalisms. The paper shows how Webpi and CCSdp represent a significant step forward in modelling adaptive and dependable real-time systems.Comment: Presented and published at DEPEND 201