| 1 | dnl -*- html -*- |
| 2 | define(__title, `Master of Mathematics')dnl |
| 3 | define(__slug, `mmath')dnl |
| 4 | include(header.html)dnl |
| 5 | define(__latex, `<span class="t-logo">L<sup>a</sup>T<sub>e</sub>X</span>')dnl |
| 6 | |
| 7 | <article> |
| 8 | <h1>Master of Mathematics</h1> |
| 9 | |
| 10 | <p class="justify">I graduated from the University of Waterloo with |
| 11 | the degree of Master of Mathematics in Computer Science in Spring |
| 12 | 2020. My research at the <a href="//watform.uwaterloo.ca">Waterloo |
| 13 | Formal Methods</a> group focused on formal logic, model checking, and |
| 14 | verification; under supervision of |
| 15 | <a href="//cs.uwaterloo.ca/~nday/">Dr. Nancy Day</a>.</p> |
| 16 | |
| 17 | <h2>A Comprehensive Study of Declarative Modelling Languages</h2> |
| 18 | dnl |
| 19 | dnl<p><em>Jump to:</em> |
| 20 | dnl<a href="#thesis">thesis</a> | |
| 21 | dnl<a href="#presentation">presentation</a> | |
| 22 | dnl<a href="#models">models</a></p> |
| 23 | |
| 24 | <h3 id="thesis">Thesis</h3> |
| 25 | |
| 26 | <p>Reference version: |
| 27 | <a href="//p.bndl.org/bandali-mmath-thesis.pdf">pdf</a> | |
| 28 | <a href="bandali-bib#bandali2020">bib</a><br/> |
| 29 | __latex sources: |
| 30 | <a href="//p.bndl.org/bandali-mmath-thesis.tar.gz">tar.gz</a> | |
| 31 | <a href="//p.bndl.org/bandali-mmath-thesis.zip">zip</a></p> |
| 32 | |
| 33 | <h4 class="center-text">Abstract</h4> |
| 34 | <blockquote id="abstract"> |
| 35 | <p>Declarative behavioural modelling is a powerful modelling paradigm |
| 36 | that enables users to model system functionality abstractly and |
| 37 | formally. An abstract model is a concise and compact representation |
| 38 | of key characteristics of a system, and enables the stakeholders to |
| 39 | reason about the correctness of the system in the early stages of |
| 40 | development.</p> |
| 41 | |
| 42 | <p>There are many different declarative languages and they have |
| 43 | greatly varying constructs for representing a transition system, and |
| 44 | they sometimes differ in rather subtle ways. In this thesis, we |
| 45 | compare seven formal declarative modelling languages B, Event-B, |
| 46 | Alloy, Dash, TLA<sup>+</sup>, PlusCal, and AsmetaL on several |
| 47 | criteria. We classify these criteria under three main categories: |
| 48 | structuring transition systems (control modelling), data descriptions |
| 49 | in transition systems (data modelling), and modularity aspects of |
| 50 | modelling. We developed this comparison by completing a set of case |
| 51 | studies across the data- vs. control-oriented spectrum in all of the |
| 52 | above languages.</p> |
| 53 | |
| 54 | <p>Structurally, a transition system is comprised of a snapshot |
| 55 | declaration and snapshot space, initialization, and a transition |
| 56 | relation, which is potentially composed of individual transitions. We |
| 57 | meticulously outline the differences between the languages with |
| 58 | respect to how the modeller would express each of the above components |
| 59 | of a transition system in each language, and include discussions |
| 60 | regarding stuttering and inconsistencies in the transition relation. |
| 61 | Data-related aspects of a formal model include use of basic and |
| 62 | composite datatypes, well-formedness and typechecking, and separation |
| 63 | of name spaces with respect to global and local variables. Modularity |
| 64 | criteria includes subtransition systems and data decomposition. We |
| 65 | employ a series of small and concise exemplars we have devised to |
| 66 | highlight these differences in each language. To help modellers |
| 67 | answer the important question of which declarative modelling language |
| 68 | may be most suited for modelling their system, we present |
| 69 | recommendations based on our observations about the differentiating |
| 70 | characteristics of each of these languages.</p> |
| 71 | </blockquote> |
| 72 | |
| 73 | <h4>License</h4> |
| 74 | |
| 75 | <pre> |
| 76 | This thesis is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify |
| 77 | it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by |
| 78 | the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or |
| 79 | (at your option) any later version. |
| 80 | |
| 81 | This thesis is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, |
| 82 | but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of |
| 83 | MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the |
| 84 | GNU General Public License for more details. |
| 85 | |
| 86 | You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License |
| 87 | along with this thesis. If not, see <<a href="https://www.gnu.org/licenses/">https://www.gnu.org/licenses/</a>>. |
| 88 | </pre> |
| 89 | |
| 90 | <p>A copy of the GNU General Public License is available |
| 91 | from <a href="gpl-3.0.html">gpl-3.0.html</a>, as well as in |
| 92 | the <code>COPYING</code> file included in both of the __latex source |
| 93 | archives linked above.</p> |
| 94 | |
| 95 | <h3 id="presentation">Presentation</h3> |
| 96 | |
| 97 | <p>Reference version: |
| 98 | pdf (coming soon)<br/> |
| 99 | __latex sources: |
| 100 | tar.gz | zip (coming soon)</p> |
| 101 | |
| 102 | <p>This is the presentation I delivered to my supervisor and the |
| 103 | second readers of my thesis on Jun 30, 2020, as |
| 104 | <a href="//cs.uwaterloo.ca/events/masters-thesis-presentation-formal-methods-comprehensive-study-declarative-modelling-languages">announced</a> |
| 105 | on the Cheriton School of Computer Science website.</p> |
| 106 | |
| 107 | <h3 id="models">Models</h3> |
| 108 | |
| 109 | <p>Reference version: |
| 110 | tar.gz | zip (coming soon)</p> |
| 111 | </article> |
| 112 | |
| 113 | define(__copy, `2020')dnl |
| 114 | include(footer.html)dnl |