Hybridisation is a systematic process along which the characteristic features
of hybrid logic, both at the syntactic and the semantic levels, are developed on
top of an arbitrary logic framed as an institution. It also captures the construction
of first-order encodings of such hybridised institutions into theories in first-order
logic. The method was originally developed to build suitable logics for the specification
of reconfigurable software systems on top of whatever logic is used to describe
local requirements of each system’s configuration. Hybridisation has, however, a
broader scope, providing a fresh example of yet another development in combining
and reusing logics driven by a problem from Computer Science. This paper offers an
overview of this method, proposes some new extensions, namely the introduction of
full quantification leading to the specification of dynamic modalities, and exemplifies
its potential through a didactical application. It is discussed how hybridisation
can be successfully used in a formal specification course in which students progress
from equational to hybrid specifications in a uniform setting, integrating paradigms,
combining data and behaviour, and dealing appropriately with systems evolution and
reconfiguration.This work is financed by the ERDF—European Regional Development Fund
through the Operational Programme for Competitiveness and Internationalisation—COMPETE
2020 Programme, and by National Funds through the FCT (Portuguese Foundation for Science
and Technology) within project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006961. M. Martins was further
supported by project UID/MAT/04106/2013. A. Madeira and R. Neves research was carried
out in the context of a post-doc and a Ph.D. grant with references SFRH/BPD/103004/2014
and SFRH/BD/52234/2013, respectively. L.S. Barbosa is also supported by SFRH/BSAB/
113890/2015
