Abstract
Few tools are available to help with the difficult task of validating that a Z specification captures its intended meaning. One tool that has been proven to be useful for validating specifications is the Alloy Analyzer, an interactive tool for checking and visualising Alloy models. However, Z specifications need to be translated to Alloy notation to make use of the Alloy Analyzer. These translations have been performed manually so far, which is a cumbersome and error-prone activity. The aim of this paper is to explore to what extent this process can be automated.
The paper identifies a subset of Z that can be straightforwardly translated to Alloy, and the translation for this subset is formalised. More complex constructs, like schemas, are harder to translate. The paper gives a brief overview of the problems, and discusses alternative translation approaches.
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Malik, P., Groves, L., Lenihan, C. (2010). Translating Z to Alloy. In: Frappier, M., Glässer, U., Khurshid, S., Laleau, R., Reeves, S. (eds) Abstract State Machines, Alloy, B and Z. ABZ 2010. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 5977. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-11811-1_28
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-11811-1_28
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