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  • Textbook
  • © 2011

Specification of Software Systems

  • Extensively revised and updated, with a considerable amount of new content included to cater to the growing needs of students and researchers
  • Provides a wide coverage of formal specification techniques and a clear writing style, supported by end-of-chapter bibliographic notes for further reading
  • Contains end-of-chapter exercises and numerous case studies, with potential course outlines suggested in the preface
  • Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

Part of the book series: Texts in Computer Science (TCS)

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Table of contents (19 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages I-XXV
  2. Specification Fundamentals

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1
    2. The Role of Specification

      • V. S. Alagar, K. Periyasamy
      Pages 3-22
    3. Specification Activities

      • V. S. Alagar, K. Periyasamy
      Pages 23-34
    4. Specification Qualities

      • V. S. Alagar, K. Periyasamy
      Pages 35-46
    5. Abstraction

      • V. S. Alagar, K. Periyasamy
      Pages 47-57
  3. Formalism Fundamentals

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 59-59
    2. Formal Systems

      • V. S. Alagar, K. Periyasamy
      Pages 61-76
    3. Automata

      • V. S. Alagar, K. Periyasamy
      Pages 77-103
    4. Extended Finite State Machine

      • V. S. Alagar, K. Periyasamy
      Pages 105-128
    5. Classification of Formal Specification Methods

      • V. S. Alagar, K. Periyasamy
      Pages 129-134
  4. Logic

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 135-135
    2. Propositional Logic

      • V. S. Alagar, K. Periyasamy
      Pages 137-145
    3. Predicate Logic

      • V. S. Alagar, K. Periyasamy
      Pages 147-175
    4. Temporal Logic

      • V. S. Alagar, K. Periyasamy
      Pages 177-229
  5. Mathematical Abstractions for Model-Based Specifications

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 231-231
    2. Set Theory and Relations

      • V. S. Alagar, K. Periyasamy
      Pages 233-264
  6. Property-Oriented Specifications

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 265-265
    2. Algebraic Specification

      • V. S. Alagar, K. Periyasamy
      Pages 267-311
    3. Larch

      • V. S. Alagar, K. Periyasamy
      Pages 313-364

About this book

This extensively revised and updated new edition of Specification of Software Systems builds upon the original focus on software specification with added emphasis on the practice of formal methods for specification and verification activities for different types of software systems and at different stages of developing software systems. Topics and features: provides a wide coverage of formal specification techniques and a clear writing style, supported by end-of-chapter bibliographic notes for further reading; presents a logical structure, with sections devoted to specification fundamentals, basics of formalism, logic, set theory and relations, property-oriented specification methods, and model-based specification techniques; contains end-of-chapter exercises and numerous case studies, with potential course outlines suggested in the Preface; covers Object-Z, B-Method, and Calculus of Communicating Systems; offers material that can be taught with tool-supported laboratory projects.

Reviews

From the reviews of the second edition:

“It covers a lot of material, and various subsets of the book may be used – as proposed by the authors – for different course offerings, from undergraduate to advanced graduate levels, as well as a reference for practitioners … . Bibliographical notes (usually very good) and exercises are included at the end of each chapter. … Summing up, this is a good and useful book on a very important topic … .” (Haim Kilov, Zentralblatt MATH, Vol. 1243, 2012)

“This software engineering book introduces software specifications. It presents basic mathematics typically used in formal methods and describes various existing formal specification languages and methods. It also demonstrates how to write specifications using examples taken from real-life software systems. … Each chapter has exercises, bibliographic notes, and a list of references. … Courses that cover software specifications can use either specific chapters or the complete text. The book can also serve as a reference on software specifications.” (Maulik A. Dave, ACM Computing Reviews, February, 2012)

Authors and Affiliations

  • Dept. Computer Science and Software Eng., Concordia University, Montreal, Canada

    V.S. Alagar

  • Computer Science Department, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, La Crosse, USA

    K. Periyasamy

About the authors

Dr. V.S. Alagar is Professor Emeritus at the Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering of Concordia University, Montreal, Canada.

Dr. K. Periyasamy is a full Professor at the Department of Computer Science of the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, USA.

Bibliographic Information

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access