Visual construction of algebraic specifications

Algebraic specifications have a proven record for the development of software that is precise, consistent, complete and unambiguous. However, despite their usefulness there has been limited uptake by software engineers. The authors attribute this apparent discrepancy, at least in part, to a question of usability and understandability. This paper describes an approach to addressing these problems through an interface that adds a visual aspect to the algebraic specification language OBJ