Software Verification Based on Game Semantics and Process Algebra

One of the major challenges in computer science is
to put programming on a firmer mathematical basis,
in order to improve the correctness of programs.
This book presents a semantic framework for
verifying safety properties of open sequential
programs. The presentation is focused on an Algol-
like language that embodies many of the core
ingredients of imperative and functional languages
and incorporates data abstraction in its syntax.
Game semantics is used to obtain a compositional,
incremental way of generating accurate models of
programs. Model-checking is made possible by giving
certain kinds of concrete automata-theoretic
representations of the model. A data-abstraction
refinement procedure is developed for model-checking
safety properties of programs with infinite integer
types. Abstraction refinement, assume-guarantee
reasoning and the L algorithm for learning regular
languages are combined to yield a procedure for
compositional verification. An implementation based
on the FDR model checker for the CSP process algebra
demonstrates practicality of the methods. The book
should be useful to researchers in the field of
Theory and Practice of Software.

Autorentext

Aleksandar Dimovski, PhD in Computer Science: Studied at the University of Warwick under the supervision of Dr. Ranko Lazic. Field of study: Theory and Practice of Software. Lecturer at FON University, Skopje.

Klappentext

One of the major challenges in computer science is to put programming on a firmer mathematical basis, in order to improve the correctness of programs. This book presents a semantic framework for verifying safety properties of open sequential programs. The presentation is focused on an Algol-like language that embodies many of the core ingredients of imperative and functional languages and incorporates data abstraction in its syntax. Game semantics is used to obtain a compositional, incremental way of generating accurate models of programs. Model-checking is made possible by giving certain kinds of concrete automata-theoretic representations of the model. A data-abstraction refinement procedure is developed for model-checking safety properties of programs with infinite integer types. Abstraction refinement, assume-guarantee reasoning and the L* algorithm for learning regular languages are combined to yield a procedure for compositional verification. An implementation based on the FDR model checker for the CSP process algebra demonstrates practicality of the methods. The book should be useful to researchers in the field of Theory and Practice of Software.