The Design of Data Type Specifications

Abstract

This report concerns the design of data types in the creation of a software system; its major purpose is to explore a means for specifying a data type that is independent of its eventual implementation. The particular style of specification, called algebraic axioms, is exhibited by axiomatizing many commonly used data types. These examples reveal a great deal about the intricacies of data type specification via algebraic axioms, and also provide a standard to which alternative forms may be compared. Further uses of this specification technique are in proving the correctness of implementations and in interpretively executing a large system design before actual implementation commences.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Nov 01, 1976
Accession Number
ADA034827

Entities

People

  • David R. Musser
  • Ellis Horowitz
  • John V. Guttag

Organizations

  • University of Southern California

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • C4I

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Abstracts
  • Computer Programming
  • Computer Science
  • Computers
  • Engineering
  • Equations
  • Information Science
  • Language
  • Lists (Data Structures)
  • Natural Languages
  • Polynomials
  • Programming Languages
  • Side Effects
  • Software Development
  • Specifications
  • Structured Programming
  • Trees (Data Structures)

Fields of Study

  • Computer science

Readers

  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Software Engineering
  • Theoretical Analysis.