コンピュータ・サイエンス : ACM computing surveys

Gilles Fauconnier & Mark Turner, " The way we think: conceptual blending and the mind's hidden complexities"

Structure and interpretation of computer programs

In this paper we review existing approaches for the safety and security analysis of object-oriented software designs, and identify ways in which these approaches can be improved and made more rigorous.

Safety and Security Analysis of Object-Oriented Models

This paper describes the nuXmv symbolic model checker for finite- and infinite-state synchronous transition systems. nuXmv is the evolution of the nuXmv open source model checker. It builds on and extends nuXmv along two main directions. For finite-state systems it complements the basic verification techniques of nuXmv with state-of-the-art verification algorithms. For infinite-state systems, it extends the nuXmv language with new data types, namely Integers and Reals, and it provides advanced SMT-based model checking techniques.

Besides extended functionalities, nuXmv has been optimized in terms of performance to be competitive with the state of the art. nuXmv has been used in several industrial projects as verification back-end, and it is the basis for several extensions to cope with requirements analysis, contract based design, model checking of hybrid systems, safety assessment, and software model checking.

/pdf/the-nuxmv-symbolic-model-checker-22a2teb50o.pdf

The nuXmv Symbolic Model Checker

The integration of UML and formal methods such as B and SMV provides a bridge between graphical specification techniques usable by mainstream software engineers, and precise analysis and verification techniques, essential for the development of high integrity and critical systems. In this paper we define a translation from UML class diagrams into B, which is used to verify the consistency of UML models and to verify that expected properties of these models hold.

UML to B: Formal Verification of Object-Oriented Models

Failed error propagation (FEP) is known to hamper software testing, yet it remains poorly understood. We introduce an information theoretic formulation of FEP that is based on measures of conditional entropy. This formulation considers the situation in which we are interested in the potential for an incorrect program state at statement s to fail to propagate to incorrect output. We define five metrics that differ in two ways: whether we only consider parts of the program that can be reached after executing s and whether we restrict attention to a single program path of interest .We give the results of experiments in which it was found that on average one in 10 tests suffered from FEP, earlier studies having shown that this figure can vary significantly between programs. The experiments also showed that our metrics are well-correlated with FEP. Our empirical study involved 30 programs, for which we executed a total of 7,140,000 test cases. The results reveal that the metrics differ in their performance but the Spearman rank correlation with failed error propagation is close to 0.95 for two of the metrics. These strong correlations in an experimental setting, in which all information about both FEP and conditional entropy is known, open up the possibility in the longer term of devising inexpensive information theory based metrics that allow us to minimise the effect of FEP.

/pdf/an-analysis-of-the-relationship-between-conditional-entropy-32475zry3j.pdf

An analysis of the relationship between conditional entropy and failed error propagation in software testing

Though there has been nearly three decades of work on program slicing, there has been comparatively little work on slicing for state machines. One of the primary challenges that currently presents a barrier to wider application of state machine slicing is the problem of determining control dependence. We survey existing related definitions, introducing a new definition that subsumes one and extends another. We illustrate that by using this new definition our slices respect Weiser slicing's termination behaviour. We prove results that clarify the relationships between our definition and older ones, following this up with examples to motivate the need for these differences.

/pdf/control-dependence-for-extended-finite-state-machines-20ska6idbi.pdf

Control Dependence for Extended Finite State Machines

Slicing is a technique, traditionally applied to programs, for extracting the parts of a program that affect the values computed at a statement of interest. In recent years authors have begun to consider slicing at model level. We present a detailed review of existing work on slicing at the level of finite-state-machine-based models. We focus on state-based modeling notations because these have received sufficient attention from the slicing community that there is now a coherent body of hitherto unsurveyed work. We also identify the challenges that state-based slicing presents and how the existing literature has addressed these. We conclude by identifying problems that remain open either because of the challenges involved in addressing them or because the community simply has yet to turn its attention to solving them.

/pdf/state-based-model-slicing-a-survey-2ptpf8tamd.pdf

Kelly Androutsopoulos

Papers

Safety and Security Analysis of Object-Oriented Models

UML to B: Formal Verification of Object-Oriented Models

An analysis of the relationship between conditional entropy and failed error propagation in software testing

Control Dependence for Extended Finite State Machines

State-based model slicing: A survey