The Z environment

A major ongoing development is the Z environment (ZEN) project which provides a support environment for the creation and animation of specifications written using the Z technique. A prototype has been completed and work is underway to produce a system for the production and animation of specifications on a regular basis. There are two major support areas possible: assistance with the creation of the specification, and mechanisms for exploring the actual behavior of what has been specified. Support for the creation of a specification can be through checkers to which the specification is submitted through an interactive editing environment. To achieve this, the authors have combined user centred design and knowledge based systems (KBS) techniques. They provide an outline of the nature of the ZEN support tool as an indication of the level of assistance that is feasible for formal specification.<
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