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Introducing Reference Semantics via Refinement

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Formal Methods and Software Engineering (ICFEM 2002)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 2495))

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Abstract

Two types of semantics have been given to object-oriented formal specification languages. Value semantics denote a class by a set of values representing its objects. Reference semantics denote a class by a set of references, or pointers, to values representing its objects. While adopting the former facilitates formal reasoning, adopting the latter facilitates transformation to object-oriented code. In this paper, we propose a combined approach using value semantics for abstract specification and reasoning, and then refining to a reference semantics before transforming specification to code.

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Smith, G. (2002). Introducing Reference Semantics via Refinement. In: George, C., Miao, H. (eds) Formal Methods and Software Engineering. ICFEM 2002. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 2495. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-36103-0_60

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-36103-0_60

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-00029-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-36103-9

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