Specifications are not (necessarily) executable

Abstract :
Specifications can be written in languages which have formal semantics. Their very formality, and the similarities with some aspects of implementation languages, invites the idea that specifications might be executed. This paper presents a number of arguments against that idea. The aim is to warn of the dangers of limiting specification languages to the point where all of their constructs can be executed. While conceding the difficulties of relating specifications to an understanding of the ``requirements'' for a system, it is argued that other solutions should be sought than ``executable specification languages''.

Source Software Engineering Journal archive
Volume 4 , Issue 6 (November 1989) table of contents
Pages: 330 - 338
Year of Publication: 1989
ISSN:0268-6961
Authors
Ian Hayes
C. B. Jones
Publisher
Michael Faraday House Herts, UK, UK

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