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   2 define(__title, `Master of Mathematics')dnl
   3 define(__slug, `mmath')dnl
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   5
   6 <article>
   7 <h1>Master of Mathematics</h1>
   8
   9 <p class="justify">I graduated from the University of Waterloo with
  10 the degree of Master of Mathematics in Computer Science in Spring
  11 2020.  My research at the <a href="//watform.uwaterloo.ca">Waterloo
  12 Formal Methods</a> group focused on formal logic, model checking, and
  13 verification; under supervision of
  14 <a href="//cs.uwaterloo.ca/~nday/">Dr. Nancy Day</a>.</p>
  15
  16 <h2>A Comprehensive Study of Declarative Modelling Languages</h2>
  17 dnl
  18 dnl<p><em>Jump to:</em>
  19 dnl<a href="#thesis">thesis</a> |
  20 dnl<a href="#presentation">presentation</a> |
  21 dnl<a href="#models">models</a></p>
  22
  23 <h3 id="thesis">Thesis</h3>
  24
  25 <p>Reference version:
  26 <a href="//p.bndl.org/bandali-mmath-thesis.pdf">pdf</a> |
  27 <a href="bandali-bib#bandali2020">bib</a><br/>
  28 __latex sources:
  29 <a href="//p.bndl.org/bandali-mmath-thesis.tar.gz">tar.gz</a> |
  30 <a href="//p.bndl.org/bandali-mmath-thesis.zip">zip</a></p>
  31
  32 <details>
  33 <summary>Abstract</summary>
  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 </details>
  73
  74 <details open>
  75 <summary>License</summary>
  76 <pre>
  77 This thesis is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
  78 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
  79 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
  80 (at your option) any later version.
  81
  82 This thesis is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
  83 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
  84 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
  85 GNU General Public License for more details.
  86
  87 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
  88 along with this thesis.  If not, see &lt;<a href="https://www.gnu.org/licenses/">https://www.gnu.org/licenses/</a>&gt;.
  89 </pre>
  90 </details>
  91
  92 <p>A copy of the GNU General Public License is available
  93 from <a href="gpl-3.0.html">gpl-3.0.html</a>, as well as in
  94 the <code>COPYING</code> file included in both of the __latex source
  95 archives linked above.</p>
  96
  97 <h3 id="presentation">Presentation</h3>
  98
  99 <p>Reference version:
 100 pdf (coming soon)<br/>
 101 __latex sources:
 102 tar.gz | zip (coming soon)</p>
 103
 104 <p>This is the presentation I delivered to my supervisor and the
 105 second readers of my thesis on Jun 30, 2020, as
 106 <a href="//cs.uwaterloo.ca/events/masters-thesis-presentation-formal-methods-comprehensive-study-declarative-modelling-languages">announced</a>
 107 on the Cheriton School of Computer Science website.</p>
 108
 109 <h3 id="models">Models</h3>
 110
 111 <p>Reference version:
 112 tar.gz | zip (coming soon)</p>
 113 </article>
 114
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