Situated Formalisms

From Dependability

When developing any formalism for a software system, from an abstract formal specification to a source code implementation, developers focus on the formal properties of what they build. These formal properties, however, are not able to convey an intuition of how the software should perform in its intended environment. Developers often include notes to themselves in the form of "meaningful" variable names or source code comments, but this is ad hoc and insufficient when building safety-critical computing systems. We are working to develop a structure for formalisms that includes natural language content to situate them in terms of their operating environment.

Selected Papers

• Strunk, Elisabeth A.

The Role of Natural Language in a Software Product

M.S. Thesis, May 2002 (PDF)