As dynamic software architecture use becomes more widespread, a variety of formal specification languages have been developed to gain a better understanding of the foundations of this type of software evolutionary change. In this paper we survey 14 formal specification approaches based on graphs, process algebras, logic, and other formalisms. Our survey will evaluate the ability of each approach to specify self-managing systems as well as the ability to address issues regarding expressiveness and scalability. Based on the results of our survey we will provide recommendations on future directions for improving the specification of dynamic software architectures, specifically self-managed architectures.
Abstract. Implicit invocation SN92, GN91] has become an important a r c hitectural style for large-scale system design and evolution. This paper addresses the lack of speci cation and veri cation formalisms for such systems. A formal computational model for implicit invocation is presented. We d e v elop a verication framework for implicit invocation that is based on Jones' rely/guarantee reasoning for concurrent systems Jon83, St 91]. The application of the framework is illustrated with several examples. The merits and limitations of the rely/guarantee paradigm in the context of implicit invocation systems are also discussed.
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