Constructive Specifications for Compositional Units

Kung-Kiu Lau
School of Computer Science, The University of Manchester
Manchester M13 9PL, United Kingdom
kung-kiu@cs.man.ac.uk

Alberto Momigliano and Mario Ornaghi
Dipartimento di Scienze dell'Informazione,
Universita' degli studi di Milano
Via Comelico 39/41, 20135 Milano, Italy
{momiglia,ornaghi}@dsi.unimi.it

Abstract:

In  previous work, we have introduced a model-theoretic semantics
for compositional units, i.e.~reusable units that can be used for
compositional program development. Such units contain open (logic)
programs, and our model-theoretic semantics characterizes their
correctness and the correctness of their composition. However, for
real-world software development, compositional units should be
inter-operable, i.e. they should allow programs in different
languages. To cater for this, our model-theoretic semantics needs to
be used in conjunction with suitable semantics for behaviors and
interfaces. In this paper, we describe one possible approach based
on constructive specifications.