Advances in Software Engineering

Research Article

Towards Support for Software Model Checking: Improving the Efficiency of Formal Specifications

Table 1

Summary of characteristics for patterns in Prospec.
Pattern Characteristics
(1) Event or condition 𝑃 does not hold within the states defined by the scope of interest
(2) The absence property is also known as alarm
Existence of ( 𝑃 ) (1) Event or condition 𝑃 holds at least once within the states defined by the scope of interest
(2) The existence property is also known as eventually.
Universality of ( 𝑃 ) (1) Event or condition 𝑃 holds in every state of the scope of interest
(2) The universality property is also known as safety or invariant
(T) Precedes ( 𝑃 ) (1) 𝑇 holds before 𝑃 holds, where 𝑇 and 𝑃 are events or conditions
(2) 𝑇 may hold several times before 𝑃 holds
(3) 𝑃 does not hold before 𝑇 holds
(4) 𝑃 may hold at the same state as 𝑇
(5) If 𝑇 holds, then 𝑃 may or may not hold
(6) If 𝑇 holds, then 𝑇 may or may not hold when 𝑃 holds
(7) The precedence property represents a cause-effect relation, where 𝑇 denotes a cause and 𝑃 denotes an effect
(8) There is no effect 𝑃 without a cause 𝑇
(9) 𝑇 precedes 𝑃 is also known as 𝑇 before 𝑃
( 𝑇 ) Strictly Precedes ( 𝑃 ) (1) 𝑇 holds before 𝑃 holds, where 𝑇 and 𝑃 are events or conditions
(2) 𝑇 may hold several times before 𝑃 holds
(3) 𝑃 does not hold before 𝑇 holds
(4) 𝑃 does not hold at the same state at which 𝑇 holds
(5) If 𝑇 holds, then 𝑃 may or may not hold
(6) If 𝑇 holds, then 𝑇 does not hold when 𝑃 holds
(7) The precedence property represents a cause-effect relation, where 𝑇 denotes a cause and 𝑃 denotes an effect
(8) There is no effect 𝑃 without a cause 𝑇
(9) 𝑇 precedes 𝑃 is also known as 𝑇 before 𝑃
( 𝑇 ) Responds to ( 𝑃 ) (1) 𝑃 must be followed by 𝑇 , where 𝑃 and 𝑇 are events or conditions
(2) Some 𝑇 follows each time that 𝑃 holds
(3) The same state at which 𝑇 holds may follow two or more states at which 𝑃 holds
(4) 𝑇 may hold at the same state as 𝑃 holds
(5) If 𝑇 holds, then 𝑃 may or may not hold at a previous state
(6) The 𝑟 𝑒 𝑠 𝑝 𝑜 𝑛 𝑠 𝑒 property represents a cause-effect relation, where 𝑃 denotes a cause and 𝑇 denotes an effect
(7) If cause 𝑃 holds, then at some future state effect 𝑇 holds
(8) 𝑇 responds to 𝑃 is also knows as 𝑇 follows 𝑃