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| 27 | <h1><a href=".">bandali</a>'s master of mathematics</h1> |
| 28 | |
| 29 | <p>I graduated from the University of Waterloo with the degree of |
| 30 | Master of Mathematics in Computer Science in Spring 2020. |
| 31 | My research at |
| 32 | the <a href="https://watform.uwaterloo.ca">Waterloo Formal Methods</a> |
| 33 | group focused on formal logic, model checking, and verification; under |
| 34 | supervision |
| 35 | of <a href="https://cs.uwaterloo.ca/~nday/">Prof. Nancy Day</a>.</p> |
| 36 | |
| 37 | |
| 38 | <h2>A Comprehensive Study of Declarative Modelling Languages</h2> |
| 39 | |
| 40 | <p><em>Jump to:</em> |
| 41 | <a href="#thesis">thesis</a> | |
| 42 | <a href="#presentation">presentation</a> | |
| 43 | <a href="#models">models</a></p> |
| 44 | |
| 45 | <h3 id="thesis">Thesis</h3> |
| 46 | |
| 47 | <p>Reference version: |
| 48 | <a href="bandali-mmath-thesis.pdf">pdf</a> | |
| 49 | <a href="../bandali.bib">bib</a><br /> |
| 50 | |
| 51 | <span class="tex">L<sup>a</sup>T<sub>e</sub>X</span> sources: |
| 52 | <a href="bandali-mmath-thesis.tar.gz">tar.gz</a> | |
| 53 | <a href="bandali-mmath-thesis.zip">zip</a></p> |
| 54 | |
| 55 | <details class="box"> |
| 56 | <summary>Abstract</summary> |
| 57 | <blockquote> |
| 58 | <p>Declarative behavioural modelling is a powerful modelling paradigm |
| 59 | that enables users to model system functionality abstractly and |
| 60 | formally. An abstract model is a concise and compact representation |
| 61 | of key characteristics of a system, and enables the stakeholders to |
| 62 | reason about the correctness of the system in the early stages of |
| 63 | development.</p> |
| 64 | |
| 65 | <p>There are many different declarative languages and they have |
| 66 | greatly varying constructs for representing a transition system, and |
| 67 | they sometimes differ in rather subtle ways. In this thesis, we |
| 68 | compare seven formal declarative modelling languages B, Event-B, |
| 69 | Alloy, Dash, TLA<sup>+</sup>, PlusCal, and AsmetaL on several |
| 70 | criteria. We classify these criteria under three main categories: |
| 71 | structuring transition systems (control modelling), data descriptions |
| 72 | in transition systems (data modelling), and modularity aspects of |
| 73 | modelling. We developed this comparison by completing a set of case |
| 74 | studies across the data- vs. control-oriented spectrum in all of the |
| 75 | above languages.</p> |
| 76 | |
| 77 | <p>Structurally, a transition system is comprised of a snapshot |
| 78 | declaration and snapshot space, initialization, and a transition |
| 79 | relation, which is potentially composed of individual transitions. |
| 80 | We meticulously outline the differences between the languages with |
| 81 | respect to how the modeller would express each of the above components |
| 82 | of a transition system in each language, and include discussions |
| 83 | regarding stuttering and inconsistencies in the transition relation. |
| 84 | Data-related aspects of a formal model include use of basic and |
| 85 | composite datatypes, well-formedness and typechecking, and separation |
| 86 | of name spaces with respect to global and local variables. Modularity |
| 87 | criteria includes subtransition systems and data decomposition. |
| 88 | We employ a series of small and concise exemplars we have devised to |
| 89 | highlight these differences in each language. To help modellers |
| 90 | answer the important question of which declarative modelling language |
| 91 | may be most suited for modelling their system, we present |
| 92 | recommendations based on our observations about the differentiating |
| 93 | characteristics of each of these languages.</p> |
| 94 | </blockquote> |
| 95 | </details> |
| 96 | |
| 97 | <details class="box" open> |
| 98 | <summary>License</summary> |
| 99 | <pre> |
| 100 | This thesis is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify |
| 101 | it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by |
| 102 | the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or |
| 103 | (at your option) any later version. |
| 104 | |
| 105 | This thesis is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, |
| 106 | but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of |
| 107 | MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the |
| 108 | GNU General Public License for more details. |
| 109 | |
| 110 | You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License |
| 111 | along with this thesis. If not, see <<a href="https://www.gnu.org/licenses/">https://www.gnu.org/licenses/</a>>. |
| 112 | </pre> |
| 113 | </details> |
| 114 | |
| 115 | <p>A copy of the GNU General Public License is available from the |
| 116 | COPYING file included in both of |
| 117 | the <span class="tex">L<sup>a</sup>T<sub>e</sub>X</span> source |
| 118 | archives linked above.</p> |
| 119 | |
| 120 | <h3 id="presentation">Presentation</h3> |
| 121 | |
| 122 | <p>Reference version: |
| 123 | pdf (coming soon)<br /> |
| 124 | <span class="tex">L<sup>a</sup>T<sub>e</sub>X</span> sources: |
| 125 | tar.gz | zip (coming soon)</p> |
| 126 | |
| 127 | <p>This is the presentation I delivered to my supervisor and the |
| 128 | second readers of my thesis on Jun 30, 2020, as |
| 129 | <a href="https://cs.uwaterloo.ca/events/masters-thesis-presentation-formal-methods-comprehensive-study-declarative-modelling-languages">announced</a> |
| 130 | on the Cheriton School of Computer Science website.</p> |
| 131 | |
| 132 | <h3 id="models">Models</h3> |
| 133 | |
| 134 | <p>Reference version: |
| 135 | tar.gz | zip (coming soon)</p> |
| 136 | |
| 137 | <hr /> |
| 138 | <p id="copy">Copyright © 2020 bandali</p> |
| 139 | <p id="license">Copying and distribution of this file, with or without |
| 140 | modification, are permitted in any medium without royalty provided the |
| 141 | copyright notice and this notice are preserved. This file is offered |
| 142 | as-is, without any warranty.</p> |
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