Factorising Temporal Specifications

This paper proposes a method to factorise the verification of temporal properties for multi-threaded programs over groups of different threads. Essentially, the method boils down to showing that there exists a group of threads that establishes the property of interest, while the remaining threads do not affect it. We fine-tune the method by identifying for each property particular conditions under which the preservation is necessary. As a specification language we use the so-called specification patterns developed as part of the Bandera project at Kansas State University. For each specification pattern we propose a decomposition rule. We have shown the soundness of each rule using the pattern mappings as defined for LTL. The proofs have been formalised using the theorem prover Isabelle

Second-Order Principles in Specification Languages for Object-Oriented Programs

Abstract. Within the setting of object-oriented program specification and verification, pointers and object references can be considered as relations between the elements of a data structure. When we specify properties of these data structures, we often describe properties of relations. Hence it is important to be able to talk about relations and their properties when specifying object-oriented programs or programs with pointers. Many interesting properties of relations such as transitive closure, finiteness, and generatedness are not expressible in first-order logic (FOL); hence neither are they expressible in first-order fragments of specification languages. In this paper we give an overview of the different ways such properties can be expressed in various logics, with a particular emphasis on extensions of FOL, i.e. transitive closure logic, fixed-point logic, and first-order dynamic logic. Within the paper we also discuss which of these extensions already are – or in fact should be – implemented within specification languages. We feel that such a discussion is necessary since it is often the case that when an extension of FOL is implemented within a specification language it is done so in an ad hoc manner or the underpinning logical concepts are not well documented..

An Axiomatisation of Basic Formal Ontology with Projection Functions

This paper proposes a reformulation of the treatment of boundaries, at parts and aggregates of entities in Basic Formal Ontology. These are currently treated as mutually exclusive, which is inadequate for biological representation since some entities may simultaneously be at parts, boundaries and/or aggregates. We introduce functions which map entities to their boundaries, at parts or aggregations. We make use of time, space and spacetime projection functions which, along the way, allow us to develop a simple temporal theor