Characterising Sound Visualisations of Specifications Using Micro-Charts and Refinement

Abstract

For validation or for communication with a client, it is useful to create a visualisation of a specification. It is important that the visualisation does not mislead the user. In this work we look at how to characterise the conditions for a micro-chart visualisation to be sound. This is done by introducing a new operator to the micro-chart semantics, allowing us to use Z data refinement to find a refinement relation between a Z specification and its (claimed sound) micro-chart visualisation. If the relation does not hold, then the visualisation is not sound.