Scaling step-wise refinement

  • Authors:
  • Don Batory;Jacob Neal Sarvela;Axel Rauschmayer

  • Affiliations:
  • University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas;University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas;Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Munich, Germany

  • Venue:
  • Proceedings of the 25th International Conference on Software Engineering
  • Year:
  • 2003

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Abstract

Step-wise refinement is a powerful paradigm for developing a complex program from a simple program by adding features incrementally. We present the AHEAD (Algebraic Hierarchical Equations for Application Design) model that shows how step-wise refinement scales to synthesize multiple programs and multiple non-code representations. AHEAD shows that software can have an elegant, hierarchical mathematical structure that is expressible as nested sets of equations. We review a tool set that supports AHEAD. As a demonstration of its viability, we have bootstrapped AHEAD tools solely from equational specifications, generating Java and non-Java artifacts automatically, a task that was accomplished only by ad hoc means previously.