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