This paper identifies the challenges of interpreting and implementing appropriate eligibility criteria and assessment processes in adult mental health services, with reference to an inner-city Trust's own protocols. Central guidance, local interpretation and professional judgment are all legitimate contributions, but also confound both the concept and processes of entry to service.
Problem statement: Formal notations employ mathematical symbols and interpretation to illustrate system elements. The formality imposed by the notations allows the accuracy and consistency of a system model to be confirmed by verification tools. Formal notations on the other hand are difficult to understand and use by most users. As supporting instruments, verification tools are expected to be as usable as possible to overcome this limitation. Approach: This study presented a survey conducted on two instances of verification tools that support a formal method, namely B. The focus of the survey was to identify the important features that are necessary for verification tools to become usable to users. The survey assessed the tools usability based on the Cognitive Dimensions of Notations (CD) framework and several criteria suggested by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). Sixty-three participants responded to the survey. The data was analyzed by using the grounded theory. Results: The analysis enabled the identification of abstract concepts and properties that formed a design guideline for usable verification tools. The guideline includes there main aspects; Interface, Utilities and Resources Management. Conclusion: The guideline acts as a roadmap for tool designers to design verification tools that promote the use of formal notations
The primary objective of software specification is to promote understanding of the system properties between stakeholders. Specification comprehensibility is essential particularly during software validation and maintenance as it permits the understanding of the system properties more easily and quickly prior to the required tasks. Formal notation such as B increases a specification's precision and consistency. However, the notation is regarded as being difficult to comprehend due to its unfamiliar symbols and rules of interpretation. Semi-formal notation such as the Unified Modelling Language (UML) is perceived as more accessible but it cannot be verified systematically to ensure a specification's accuracy. Integrating the UML and B could perhaps produce an accurate and approachable specification. This paper presents an experimental comparison of the comprehensibility of a UML-based graphical formal specification versus a purely textual formal specification. The measurement focused on the efficiency in performing the comprehension tasks. The experiment employed a cross-over design and was conducted on forty-one third-year and masters students. The results show that the integration of semi-formal and formal notations expedites the subjects' comprehension tasks with accuracy even with limited hours of training.
Students often have difficulty with the minutiae of program construction. We introduce the idea of 'Programming by Numbers', which breaks some of the programming process down into smaller steps, giving such students a way into the process of Programming in the Small. Programming by Numbers does not add intellectual difficulty to learning programming, as it does not require the student to learn additional tools or theory. In fact it can be done with pencil and paper or the normal editor, and only requires the student to remember (and understand) seven simple steps. Programming by Numbers works best with languages that offer pattern matching, such as ML, or data-directed dispatching, such as Java.
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