A distributed specification model and its prototyping

A specification model is described that is based on the finite-state machine but is distributed. The model allows the user to decompose a large system into separate views. Each view is a complete system in itself, and reveals how the whole system would behave as seen from a certain angle. Put together, the combined views present a complete picture of the whole system. The complexity of a large centralized system is thus distributed and subdued. The author offers a simple execution scheme for the model. Using a high-level state-transition language called SXL, constructs in the model are expressed as preconditions and postconditions of transitions. The execution scheme allows all the views in the model to proceed in a parallel but harmonious way, producing a working prototype for the modeled system