A Programmer Friendly Modular Definition of the Semantics of Java

We propose in this paper a definition of the semantics of Java programs which can be used as a basis for the standardization of the language and of its implementation on the Java Virtual Machine. The definition provides a machine and system independent view of the language as it is seen by the Java programmer. It takes care to directly reflect the description in the Java language reference manual so that the basic design decisions can be checked by standardizers and implementors against a mathematical model. Our definition is the basis for a related definition we give in a sequel to this paper for the implementation of Java on the Java Virtual Machine as described in the language and in the Virtual Machine reference manuals.

The Origins and the Development of the ASM Method for High Level System Design and Analysis

Abstract: The research belonging to the Abstract State Machines approach to system design and analysis is surveyed and documented in an annotated ASM bibliography. The survey covers the period from 1984, when the idea for the concept of ASMs (under the name dynamic or evolving algebras or structures) appears for the first time in a foundational context, to the year 2001 where a mathematically well-founded, practical system development method based upon the notion of ASMs is in place and ready to be industrially deployed. Some lessons for the future of ASMs are drawn

Modeling Workflow Patterns from First Principles

A preliminary version has been presented as `A Critical Analysis of Workflow Patterns' to the International Workshop ASM'07 at Agder University College in Grimstadt/Norway, held 7.-9.6.2007 ISSN 0302-9743, ISBN-10: 3-540-75562-4, ISBN-13 = 978-3-540-75562-

The reachability problem for Petri nets and decision problems for Skolem arithmetic

rEVIEWS IN MR 82b: 03079, ZBL 453 #03013; MR 81h: 68034, ZBL 453 #03012.Previously published in Proc. of the 5th Scandinavian Logic Symposium}, Aalborg 1979, pp. 59 - 96 and Grundlagen der Mathematik und Informatik, RWTH Aachen, Hrg. W. Oberschelp, M. M. Richter, Nr. 2, Juli 1978, pp. 3