ADA for Specification: Possibilities and Limitations

This book examines the use of the Ada programming language in the specification stage of a software development project, placing emphasis throughout on the issues involved in specification and on the generation of ideas for software tools for use in an Ada environment. It begins with a discussion of the role and purpose of specification in a large-scale software project, describing the features that a specification language should have and assessing Ada as a candidate. The use of Ada as a program design language and in system modelling is then examined, together with a number of other specification languages. Conversion of a specification into a program and tools for handling specifications are then considered, before the findings are summarised and conclusions drawn. An appendix describes an Ada-related specification language, adapted to general engineering systems. The book is based on a study for the Commission of the European Communites, completed in July 1984.