Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

NASA Formal Methods Symposium

NFM 2011: NASA Formal Methods pp 2–12Cite as

Specifications for Free

  • Conference paper

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNPSE,volume 6617))

Abstract

Recent advances in software validation and verification make it possible to widely automate the check whether a specification is satisfied. This progress is hampered, though, by the persistent difficulty of writing specifications. Are we facing a “specification crisis”? By mining specifications from existing systems, we can alleviate this burden, reusing and extending the knowledge of 60 years of programming, and bridging the gap between formal methods and real-world software. In this NFM 2011 invited keynote, I present the state of the art in specification mining, its challenges, and its potential, up to a vision of seamless integration of specification and programming.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as 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

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. Ammons, G., Bodík, R., Larus, J.R.: Mining specifications. In: Proc. POPL 2002, pp. 4–16. ACM, New York (2002)

    Google Scholar 

  2. Burdy, L., Cheon, Y., Cok, D.R., Ernst, M.D., Kiniry, J.R., Leavens, G.T., Leino, K.R.M., Poll, E.: An overview of JML tools and applications. STTT 7(3), 212–232 (2005)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Clarke, E., Grumberg, O., Jha, S., Lu, Y., Veith, H.: Counterexample-guided abstraction refinement for symbolic model checking. J. ACM 50, 752–794 (2003)

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  4. Csallner, C., Tillmann, N., Smaragdakis, Y.: DySy: dynamic symbolic execution for invariant inference. In: Proc. ICSE 2008, pp. 281–290. ACM, New York (2008)

    Google Scholar 

  5. Dallmeier, V., Knopp, N., Mallon, C., Hack, S., Zeller, A.: Generating test cases for specification mining. In: Proceedings of the 19th International Symposium on Software Testing and Analysis, ISSTA 2010, pp. 85–96. ACM, New York (2010)

    Google Scholar 

  6. Ernst, M.D., Cockrell, J., Griswold, W.G., Notkin, D.: Dynamically discovering likely program invariants to support program evolution. IEEE TSE 27(2), 99–123 (2002)

    Google Scholar 

  7. Flanagan, C., Leino, K.R.M.: Houdini, an Annotation Assistant for ESC/Java. In: Oliveira, J.N., Zave, P. (eds.) FME 2001. LNCS, vol. 2021, pp. 500–517. Springer, Heidelberg (2001)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  8. Ghezzi, C., Mocci, A., Monga, M.: Synthesizing intensional behavior models by graph transformation. In: Proc. ICSE 2009, pp. 430–440. IEEE Computer Society, Washington, DC (2009)

    Google Scholar 

  9. Godefroid, P., Klarlund, N., Sen, K.: DART: directed automated random testing. In: Proc. PLDI 2005, pp. 213–223. ACM, New York (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  10. Henkel, J., Diwan, A.: Discovering algebraic specifications from Java classes. In: Cardelli, L. (ed.) ECOOP 2003. LNCS, vol. 2743, pp. 431–456. Springer, Heidelberg (2003)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  11. McMinn, P.: Search-based software test data generation: a survey. Software Testing, Verification & Reliability 14(2), 105–156 (2004)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Pacheco, C., Ernst, M.D.: Eclat: Automatic generation and classification of test inputs. In: Gao, X.-X. (ed.) ECOOP 2005. LNCS, vol. 3586, pp. 504–527. Springer, Heidelberg (2005)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  13. Pacheco, C., Lahiri, S.K., Ernst, M.D., Ball, T.: Feedback-directed random test generation. In: Proc. ICSE 2007, pp. 75–84. IEEE Computer Society, Washington, DC (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  14. Polikarpova, N., Ciupa, I., Meyer, B.: A comparative study of programmer-written and automatically inferred contracts. In: Proc. ISSTA 2009, pp. 93–104. ACM, New York (2009)

    Google Scholar 

  15. Shoham, S., Yahav, E., Fink, S., Pistoia, M.: Static specification mining using automata-based abstractions. In: Proc. ISSTA 2007, pp. 174–184. ACM, New York (2007)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Saarland University, Saarbrücken, Germany

    Andreas Zeller

Authors
  1. Andreas Zeller
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, M/S 301-285, 91109, Pasadena, CA, USA

    Mihaela Bobaru , Klaus Havelund , Gerard J. Holzmann  & Rajeev Joshi , ,  & 

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this paper

Cite this paper

Zeller, A. (2011). Specifications for Free. In: Bobaru, M., Havelund, K., Holzmann, G.J., Joshi, R. (eds) NASA Formal Methods. NFM 2011. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 6617. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-20398-5_2

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-20398-5_2

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-20397-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-20398-5

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation