A Formal Semantics of Data Flow Diagrams

Formal Aspects of Computing - Tập 6 - Trang 586-606 - 2012
Peter Gorm Larsen1, Nico Plat2, Hans Toetenel2
1IFAD, Odense M, Denmark
2Faculty of Technical Mathematics and Informatics, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands

Tóm tắt

This paper presents a formal semantics of data flow diagrams as used in Structured Analysis, based on an abstract model for data flow transformations. The semantics consists of a collection of VDM functions, transforming an abstract syntax representation of a data flow diagram into an abstract syntax representation of a VDM specification. Since this transformation is executable, it becomes possible to provide a software analyst/designer with two ‘views’ of the system being modelled: a graphical view in terms of a data flow diagram, and a textual view in terms of a VDM specification. In this paper emphasis is on the motivation for the choices made in the transformation. The main aspects of the transformation itself are described using annotated VDM functions with some examples.

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