Formal methods and software development. Proceedings of the International Joint Conference on Theory and Practice of Software Development (TAPSOFT), Berlin, March 25-29, 1985. Volume 2: Colloquium on Software Engineering (CSE)
Several papers focus on concepts of formal semantics and their application to specific tasks in software development, such as the specification of modular programs, the derivation of programs from formal specifications and the treatment of concurrency. These papers encourage us to think of programs in abstract mathematical terms. A second group of papers present software tools to support the application of formal approaches. Typically, the tools facilitate the formulation of syntactically correct specifications; they perform consistency checks and partially automate the transition from specifications to programs or the generation of test data on the basis of a given specification. In other papers the scope is widened to methods for software development as a whole. They report experiences with more or less formal methods gained in projects and in introducing methods in industrial settings. Finally, the scope of applicability of formal methods and the claims put forward by their proponents are critically examined; in one case by pointing to specific problems in software development which can or cannot be aided by formalization in the widest sense; in another, by showing how all formal approaches, in the end depend on intuitive insight.
scientific article; zbMATH DE number 3926207