Abstract. There is significant interest in the use of Z in conjunction with object-orientation. Here we present a new approach to structuring Z specifications in an object-oriented (OO) style. Our structuring is based on views, it uses the schema calculus, and it does not extend Z. The resulting OO Z specifications are comprehensible, modular, and conceptually clear. The modularity of the new approach supports a templateinstantiation approach to expressing OO models in Z; practical formal verification and validation of the model can be undertaken using metaproof, meta-lemmas, and formal snapshots.
Abstract. We present a practical approach to a formal analysis of UMLbased models. This is achieved by an underlying formal representation in Z, which allows us to pose and discharge conjectures to analyse models. We show how our approach allows us to consistency-check UML models, and model analysis by simply drawing snapshot diagrams.
Abstract. Software systems are becoming larger and more complex. By tackling the modularisation of crosscutting concerns, aspect orientation draws attention to modularity as a means to address the problems of scalability, complexity and evolution in software systems development. Aspect-oriented modelling (AOM) applies aspect-orientation to the construction of models. Most existing AOM approaches are designed without a formal semantics, and use multi-view partial descriptions of behaviour. This paper presents an AOM approach based on the Visual Contract Language (VCL): a visual language for abstract and precise modelling, designed with a formal semantics, and comprising a novel approach to visual behavioural modelling based on design by contract where behavioural descriptions are total. By applying VCL to a large case study of a car-crash crisis management system, the paper demonstrates how modularity of VCL's constructs, at different levels of granularity, help to tackle complexity. In particular, it shows how VCL's package construct and its associated composition mechanisms are key in supporting separation of concerns, coarse-grained problem decomposition and aspect-orientation. The case study's modelling solution has a clear and well-defined modular structure; the backbone of this structure is a collection of packages encapsulating local solutions to concerns.
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