Modelling Systems: Practical Tools and Techniques for Software Development: 2nd Edition

John Fitzgerald and Peter Gorm Larsen, Cambridge University Press, 2nd Edition, 2009 ISBN 0 521 62348 0 with a foreword by Dines Bjørner and Cliff Jones Hardback £40.00 Paperback c £24.95

This site contains Exercises, VDM-SL examples from the book, course material and more information on the VDM family of modelling languages and tools. If you would like to know more about VDM we recommend visiting the VDM Portal. Since we are using TWiki, you can contribute to this site too!

About the book

How can we make sure that the software we build does what it is supposed to? This book provides an insight into established techniques which help developers to overcome the complexity of software development by constructing models of software systems in early design stages. It uses one of the leading formal methods, VDM (Vienna Development Method), and combines training in the formalism with industry-strength tool support and examples derived from real industrial applications. The principles taught here also apply to many of the current generation of formal methods. This second edition has been updated to include advanced online tool support for formal modelling as well as up-to-date reports on real commercial applications in areas as diverse as business information systems and firmware design.

• A gentle, structured approach with real-world case studies
• Class tested in universities and industrial courses
• Software tools now available online, together with teaching materials, exercises, solutions and more

Contents

Foreword to the first edition; Preface; 1. Introduction; 2. Constructing a model; 3. VDMTools Lite; 4. Describing system properties using logical expressions; 5. The elements of a formal model; 6. Sets; 7. Sequences; 8. Mappings; 9. Recursive structures; 10. Validating models; 11. State-based modelling; 12. Large-scale modelling; 13. Using VDM in practice; A. Language guide; B. Solutions to exercises; Bibliography; Subject index; Definitions index. ISBN 0 521 62348 0

You can order the book (including inpection copies) from the Cambridge University Press Site

Tool support

CSK Systems has kindly provided a special version of VDMTools to support our book. VDMTools Lite is available free of charge and can be downloaded from www.vdmtools.jp/en. Versions are available for Windows 2000/XP, Mac (G4, G5 and x86) and Linux. For academic users, site licenses are available, also free of charge, for the full version of the tool. The full version includes automatic code generation for Java and C++, dynamic link library and CORBA support. Please contact VDM.SP@csk.com for any queries related to licensing.

Learning and Teaching Materials Online

We have teaching materials for the book.

Errata

Please have a look at our on-line Errata sheet. Found errors in the book? You are welcome to update this document!

-- JohnFitzgerald - 04 Jun 2009

• Cover of "Modelling Systems" 2nd edn.: