Specification of Abstract Data Types - Hardcover

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This textbook provides an introduction to abstract data type specification. After an informal discussion on the design of reliable software, it presents the main notions and properties of algebras. Next it investigates logic. On the basis of these fundamentals it describes in some detail three specification methods and the principles of specification languages. It concludes with an extended example illustrating the use of abstract data type specification in software design. This book differs from other textbooks on the same subject in at least two respects. Firstly, it avoids fixing the logic or concentrating on a particular specification method - instead it introduces a general notion of logic encompassing those commonly used, and it presents three specification methods leading to loose specifications, initial specifications and constructive specifications respectively. Secondly, it treats the subject by making use of classical set-theoretical notions instead of category theory. An appendix briefly explains the categorical approach. While treating the subject with mathematical precision, the book contains a large number of comments, examples and exercises.