Software abstractions: logic, language and analysis

In Software Abstractions Daniel Jackson introduces an approach to software design that draws on traditional formal but exploits automated tools to find flaws as early as possible. This approach--which Jackson calls lightweight formal methods or agile modeling--takes from formal specification idea of a precise and expressive notation based on a tiny core of simple and robust concepts but replaces conventional analysis based on theorem proving with a fully automated analysis that gives designers immediate feedback. Jackson has developed Alloy, a language that captures essence of software abstractions simply and succinctly, using a minimal toolkit of mathematical notions. This revised edition updates text,…