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

Proceedings of International Workshop "Global Computing: Programming Environments, Languages, Security and Analysis of Systems"

According to the IST/ FET proactive initiative on GLOBAL COMPUTING, the goal is to obtain techniques (models, frameworks, methods, algorithms) for constructing systems that are flexible, dependable, secure, robust and efficient. The dominant concerns are not those of representing and manipulating data efficiently but rather those of handling the co-ordination and interaction, security, reliability, robustness, failure modes, and control of risk of the entities in the system and the overall design, description and performance of the system itself. Completely different paradigms of computer science may have to be developed to tackle these issues effectively. The research should concentrate on systems having the following characteristics: • The systems are composed of autonomous computational entities where activity is not centrally controlled, either because global control is impossible or impractical, or because the entities are created or controlled by different owners. • The computational entities are mobile, due to the movement of the physical platforms or by movement of the entity from one platform to another. • The configuration varies over time. For instance, the system is open to the introduction of new computational entities and likewise their deletion. The behaviour of the entities may vary over time. • The systems operate with incomplete information about the environment. For instance, information becomes rapidly out of date and mobility requires information about the environment to be discovered. The ultimate goal of the research action is to provide a solid scientific foundation for the design of such systems, and to lay the groundwork for achieving effective principles for building and analysing such systems. This workshop covers the aspects related to languages and programming environments as well as analysis of systems and resources involving 9 projects (AGILE , DART, DEGAS , MIKADO, MRG, MYTHS, PEPITO, PROFUNDIS, SECURE) out of the 13 founded under the initiative. After an year from the start of the projects, the goal of the workshop is to fix the state of the art on the topics covered by the two clusters related to programming environments and analysis of systems as well as to devise strategies and new ideas to profitably continue the research effort towards the overall objective of the initiative. We acknowledge the Dipartimento di Informatica and Tlc of the University of Trento, the Comune di Rovereto, the project DEGAS for partially funding the event and the Events and Meetings Office of the University of Trento for the valuable collaboration

Animation of Z Specifications By Translation to Prolog

Yazılım geliştirebilmenin formal metodları o yazılım tanımlamasının geçerliliğine bağlıdır. Böyle bir tanımlama genelde 'Z' gibi bir formal dilde ifade edilir. Ancak, geçerli olması için, 'Z' tanımlaması test edilmeli, bunu yapabilmek için de animasyon yapılabilecek ve icra edilebilecek bir forma transfer edilebilmelidir. 'Z' tanımlamalarının animasyonları için kullanılan dillerden birisi Prolog'dur. Bu makalede 'Z' şemalarını Prolog'a çeviren teknikler açıklanmaktadır.Aym zamanda bu tür bir çevirmenin eksikleri ve belirsizlikleri üzerinde durulacaktır.Formal methods of software development rely on the validation of the specification of the software. Such specification is normally expressed in a formal language such as Z. However, in order to be validated the Z specification must be tested, and to achieve this it has to be transformed into a form that can be executed or animated. Prolog was one of the languages used for animation of Z specifications. This paper explains the techniques used for translating Z schemas into Prolog predicates. It also examines some of this translation shortcomings and unreliable features

Animation of Z Specifications By Translation to Prolog

Yazılım geliştirebilmenin formal metodları o yazılım tanımlamasının geçerliliğine bağlıdır. Böyle bir tanımlama genelde 'Z' gibi bir formal dilde ifade edilir. Ancak, geçerli olması için, 'Z' tanımlaması test edilmeli, bunu yapabilmek için de animasyon yapılabilecek ve icra edilebilecek bir forma transfer edilebilmelidir. 'Z' tanımlamalarının animasyonları için kullanılan dillerden birisi Prolog'dur. Bu makalede 'Z' şemalarını Prolog'a çeviren teknikler açıklanmaktadır.Aym zamanda bu tür bir çevirmenin eksikleri ve belirsizlikleri üzerinde durulacaktır.Formal methods of software development rely on the validation of the specification of the software. Such specification is normally expressed in a formal language such as Z. However, in order to be validated the Z specification must be tested, and to achieve this it has to be transformed into a form that can be executed or animated. Prolog was one of the languages used for animation of Z specifications. This paper explains the techniques used for translating Z schemas into Prolog predicates. It also examines some of this translation shortcomings and unreliable features

Requirements modelling and formal analysis using graph operations

The increasing complexity of enterprise systems requires a more advanced analysis of the representation of services expected than is currently possible. Consequently, the specification stage, which could be facilitated by formal verification, becomes very important to the system life-cycle. This paper presents a formal modelling approach, which may be used in order to better represent the reality of the system and to verify the awaited or existing system’s properties, taking into account the environmental characteristics. For that, we firstly propose a formalization process based upon properties specification, and secondly we use Conceptual Graphs operations to develop reasoning mechanisms of verifying requirements statements. The graphic visualization of these reasoning enables us to correctly capture the system specifications by making it easier to determine if desired properties hold. It is applied to the field of Enterprise modelling

Semantical Correctness of Simulation-to-Animation Model and Rule Transformation

In the framework of graph transformation, simulation rules are well-known to define the operational behavior of visual models. Moreover, it has been shown already how to construct animation rules in a domain specific layout from simulation rules. An important requirement of this construction is the semantical correctness which has not yet been considered. In this paper we give a precise definition for simulation-to-animation (S2A) model and rule transformations. Our main results show under which conditions semantical correctness can be obtained. The results are applied to analyze the S2A transformation of a Radio Clock model. Keywords: graph transformation, model and rule transformation, semantical correctness, simulation, animatio

Generic Drone Control Platform for Autonomous Capture of Cinema Scenes

The movie industry has been using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles as a new tool to produce more and more complex and aesthetic camera shots. However, the shooting process currently rely on manual control of the drones which makes it difficult and sometimes inconvenient to work with. In this paper we address the lack of autonomous system to operate generic rotary-wing drones for shooting purposes. We propose a global control architecture based on a high-level generic API used by many UAV. Our solution integrates a compound and coupled model of a generic rotary-wing drone and a Full State Feedback strategy. To address the specific task of capturing cinema scenes, we combine the control architecture with an automatic camera path planning approach that encompasses cinematographic techniques. The possibilities offered by our system are demonstrated through a series of experiments

A cognitive exploration of the “non-visual” nature of geometric proofs

Why are Geometric Proofs (Usually) “Non-Visual”? We asked this question as a way to explore the similarities and differences between diagrams and text (visual thinking versus language thinking). Traditional text-based proofs are considered (by many to be) more rigorous than diagrams alone. In this paper we focus on human perceptual-cognitive characteristics that may encourage textual modes for proofs because of the ergonomic affordances of text relative to diagrams. We suggest that visual-spatial perception of physical objects, where an object is perceived with greater acuity through foveal vision rather than peripheral vision, is similar to attention navigating a conceptual visual-spatial structure. We suggest that attention has foveal-like and peripheral-like characteristics and that textual modes appeal to what we refer to here as foveal-focal attention, an extension of prior work in focused attention