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Publications

Publications by HASLab

2008

Resources for situated actions

Authors
Doherty, G; Campos, J; Harrison, M;

Publication
INTERACTIVE SYSTEMS: DESIGN, SPECIFICATION, AND VERIFICATION, PROCEEDINGS

Abstract
In recent years, advances in software tools have made it easier to analyze interactive system specifications, and the range of their possible behaviors. However, the effort involved in producing the specifications of the system is Still Substantial. and a difficulty exists regarding the specification of plausible behaviors on the part of the user. Recent trends in technology towards more mobile and distributed Systems further exacerbates the issue, as contextual factors come in to play, and less structured, more opportunistic behavior on the part of the user makes purely task-based analysis difficult. In this paper we consider a resourced action approach to specification and analysis. In pursuing this approach we have two aims - firstly. to facilitate a resource-based analysis of user activity. allowing resources to be distributed across a number of artifacts, and secondly to consider within the analysis a wider range of plausible and opportunistic user behaviors without a heavy specification overhead, or requiring commitment to detailed user models.

2008

Systematic analysis of control panel interfaces using formal tools

Authors
Campos, JC; Harrison, MD;

Publication
INTERACTIVE SYSTEMS: DESIGN, SPECIFICATION, AND VERIFICATION, PROCEEDINGS

Abstract
The paper explores the role that formal modeling may play in aiding the visualization and implementation of usability requirements of a control panel. We propose that this form of analysis should become a systematic and routine aspect of the development Of Such interfaces. We use a notation for describing the interface that is convenient to use by software engineers, and describe a set of tools designed to make the process systematic and exhaustive.

2008

Property patterns for the formal verification of automated production systems

Authors
Campos, JC; Machado, J; Seabra, E;

Publication
IFAC Proceedings Volumes (IFAC-PapersOnline)

Abstract
In recent years, several approaches to the analysis of automation systems dependability through the application of formal verification techniques have been proposed. Much of the research has been concerned with the modelling languages used, and how best to express the automation systems, so that automated verification might be possible. Less attention, however, has been devoted to the process of writing properties that accurately capture the requirements that need verification. This is however a crucial aspect of the verification process. Writing appropriate properties, in a logic suitable for verification, is a skilful process, and indeed there have been reports of properties being wrongly expressed. In this paper we put forward a tool and a collection of property patterns that aim at providing help in this area. Copyright

2008

Model-based User Interface Testing With Spec Explorer and ConcurTaskTrees

Authors
Silva, JL; Campos, JC; Paiva, ACR;

Publication
Electronic Notes in Theoretical Computer Science

Abstract
Analytic usability analysis methods have been proposed as an alternative to user testing in early phases of development due to the cost of the latter approach. By working with models of the systems, analytic models are not capable of identifying implementation related problems that might have an impact on usability. Model-based testing enables the testing of an implemented software artefact against a model of what it should be (the oracle). In the case of model-based user interface testing, the models should be expressed at an adequate level of abstraction, adequately modelling the interaction process. This paper describes an effort to develop tool support enabling the use of task models as oracles for model-based testing of user interfaces.

2008

A relational model for confined separation logic

Authors
Wang, SL; Barbosa, LS; Oliveira, JN;

Publication
TASE 2008: SECOND IFIP/IEEE INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON THEORETICAL ASPECTS OF SOFTWARE ENGINEERING, PROCEEDINGS

Abstract
Confined separation logic is a new extension to separation logic designed to deal with problems involving dangling references within shared mutable structures. In particular it allows for reasoning about confinement in object-oriented programs. In this paper, we discuss the semantics of such an extension by defining a relational model for the overall logic, parametric on the shapes of both the store and the heap. This model provides a simple and elegant interpretation of the new confinement connectives and helps in seeking for duals. A number of properties of this logic are proved calculationally.

2008

Calculating invariants as coreflexive bisimulations

Authors
Barbosa, LS; Oliveira, JN; Silva, A;

Publication
ALGEBRAIC METHODOLOGY AND SOFTWARE TECHNOLOGY, PROCEEDINGS

Abstract
Invariants, bisimulations and assertions are the main ingredients of coalgebra theory applied to software systems. In this paper we reduce the first to a particular case of the second and show how both together pave the way to a theory of coalgebras which regards invariant predicates as types. An outcome of such a theory is a calculus of invariants' proof obligation discharge, a fragment of which is presented in the paper. The approach has two main ingredients: one is that of adopting relations as "first class citizens" in a pointfree reasoning style; the other lies on a synergy found between a relational construct, Reynolds' relation on functions involved in the abstraction theorem on parametric polymorphism and the coalgebraic account of bisimulations and invariants. This leads to an elegant proof of the equivalence between two different definitions of bisimulation found in coalgebra literature (due to B. Jacobs and Aczel & Mendler, respectively) and to their instantiation to the classical Park-Milner definition popular in process algebra.

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