Abstract:
This paper explores theories that help in (i) proving that a system
composed from components satisfies a system specification given only
specifications of components and the composition operator, and (ii)
deducing desirable properties of components from the system
specification and properties of the composition operator. The paper
studies compositional systems in general without making assumptions
that components are computer programs. The results obtained from such
abstract representations are general but also weaker than results that
can be obtained from more restrictive assumptions such as assuming
that systems are parallel compositions of concurrent
programs. Explorations of general theories of composition can help
identify fundamental issues common to many problem domains. The theory
presented here is based on predicate transformers.
Michel Charpentier <>
Last modified: Fri Feb 20 14:53:27 EST 2004