Larch: Languages and Tools for Formal Specification

This text addresses an important topic: the use of a formal specification language and supporting tools. Formal methods are becoming increasingly important to the practicing programmer; Springer-Verlag has a tradition of publishing books in this area. The book's subject, the Larch specification work at MIT and DEC, is respected amongst academic computer scientists. As plans begin for Larch tools to be distributed to the community, this book can serve as an invaluable reference. The authors of this text, James Horning and John Guttag, want their book to reach people interested in implementing formal methods into practical use. This readable text makes extensive use of examples, and serves as both a reference manual and as a tutorial. Chapter 1 discusses the use of formal specifications in program development, providing a context for the technical material that follows. Chapter 2 contains a very short introduction to the notation of mathematical logic. The chapter is aimed at those with no background in logic, and provides all the logic background needed to understand the remainder of the book. The remaining six chapters of the book contains an in-depth look at Larch, and the authors' approach to the formal specification of program components.