Abstract
In an industrial research project, we have demonstrated the feasibility of applying category-theoretic methods to the specification, synthesis, and maintenance of industrial strength software systems. The demonstration used a first-of-its-kind tool for this purpose, Kestrel’s Specware™ software development system. We describe our experiences and discuss broadening the application of such category-theoretic methods in industry.
Although the technology is promising, it needs additional development to make it generally usable. This is not surprising given its mathematical foundation. On the other hand, we believe our demonstration is a turning point in the use of mathematically rigorous approaches in industrial software development and maintenance. We have demonstrated here the capture via mathematical methods not only of software engineering design rationale, but also of the product design and manufacturing process rationale used by different engineering disciplines, and the production of usable software directly from the captured rationale. We feel that that further evolution of the tools for this technology will make formal systems engineering a reality.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
D. Bjorner and C. Jones. Formal Specification and Software Development. Prentice-Hall International, 1982.
L Blaine and A Goldberg. Dtre-a semi-automatic transformation system. In B Moller, editor, Constructing Programs from Specifications. North-Holland, 1991.
T. Gruber et al. An ontology for engineering mathematics. In Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Principles of Representation and Reasoning. Morgan Kauffman, 1994.
J. A. Goguen and R. M. Burstall. Some fundamental algebraic tools for the semantics of computation-part 1: Comma categories, colimits, signatures and theories. Theoretical Computer Science, 31(1,2):175–209, 1984.
J. A. Goguen and R. M. Burstall. Institutions: Abstract model theory for specification and programming. Journal of the Association for Computing Machinery, 39(1):95–146, 1992.
R. Jullig and Y. V. Srinivas. Diagrams for software synthesis. In Proceedings of KBSE’ 93: The Eighth Knowledge-Based Software Engineering Conference, pages 10–19. IEEE Computer Society Press, 1993.
J. Meseguer. General logics. In Logic Colloquium’ 87, pages 275–329. Science Publishers B. V. (North-Holland), 1987.
B C Pierce. Basic CategoryThe oryf or Computer Scientists. MIT Press, 1991.
D. Smith. Kids: Akno wledge based software development system. In M. Lowry and R. McCartney, editors, Automating Software Design. MIT Press, 1991.
J. M. Spivey. The Z Notation: A Reference Manual. Prentice-Hall, 1992.
Y. V. Srinivas and R. Jullig. specwaretm: Formal support for composing software. In Proceedings of the Conference of Mathematics of Program Construction, 1995.
T. C. Wang and A. Goldberg. A mechanical verifier for supporting the design of reliable reactive systems. In Proceedings of the International Symposium on Software ReliabilityE ngineering, 1991.
K. Williamson and M. Healy. Formally specifyuing engineering design rationale. In Proceedings of the Automated Software Engineering Conference-1997, 1997.
K. Williamson and M. Healy. Deriving engineering software from requirements. Journal of Intelligent Manufacturing, 11(1):3–28, 2000.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2000 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Healy, M., Williamson, K. (2000). Applying Category Theory to Derive Engineering Software from Encoded Knowledge. In: Rus, T. (eds) Algebraic Methodology and Software Technology. AMAST 2000. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 1816. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-45499-3_34
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-45499-3_34
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-67530-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-45499-1
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive