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Concept
Formal specification
Summary
In computer science, formal specifications are mathematically based techniques whose purpose are to help with the implementation of systems and software. They are used to describe a system, to analyze its behavior, and to aid in its design by verifying key properties of interest through rigorous and effective reasoning tools. These specifications are formal in the sense that they have a syntax, their semantics fall within one domain, and they are able to be used to infer useful information.
In each passing decade, computer systems have become increasingly more powerful and, as a result, they have become more impactful to society. Because of this, better techniques are needed to assist in the design and implementation of reliable software. Established engineering disciplines use mathematical analysis as the foundation of creating and validating product design. Formal specifications are one such way to achieve this in software engineering reliability as once predicted. Other methods such as testing are more commonly used to enhance code quality.
Given such a specification, it is possible to use formal verification techniques to demonstrate that a system design is correct with respect to its specification. This allows incorrect system designs to be revised before any major investments have been made into an actual implementation. Another approach is to use probably correct refinement steps to transform a specification into a design, which is ultimately transformed into an implementation that is correct by construction.
It is important to note that a formal specification is not an implementation, but rather it may be used to develop an implementation. Formal specifications describe what a system should do, not how the system should do it.
A good specification must have some of the following attributes: adequate, internally consistent, unambiguous, complete, satisfied, minimal
A good specification will have:
Constructability, manageability and evolvability
Usability
Communicability
Powerful and efficient analysis
One of the main reasons there is interest in formal specifications is that they will provide an ability to perform proofs on software implementations.
Official source
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