Thoughts on the computer translation of a Z specification to Miranda

Considers a prototype or animation of the Z specification of a simple internal telephone database in Miranda. That was produced manually. The author reflects on the informal process and considers how it could be automated. A selling point of formal Z specification is that it is based on procedural abstraction. Proponents tend to say that an executable specification is a contradiction in terms. Thus, a major problem of automating this process is to decide how to deal with the non-executable features of a specification. A less serious problem is that most Z specifications are incomplete in the sense that many features are left unspecified, such as the user interface. Thus, in order to animate them they either have to be completed by adding this information or the completion has to be introduced in the translation process. Both alternatives are investigated. A further difficulty is that Z is bivalent, whereas Miranda's Boolean datatype has three values, thus one has the problem of mapping two truth values to three. This problem is also considered. Finally, the formal specification of the automatic translator is reviewed.<
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