A formal method for software maintenance

Author

Chu, William C. ; Yang, Hongji ; Luker, Paul

Author_Institution

Dept. of Inf. Eng., Feng Chia Univ., Taichung, Taiwan

fYear

1996

fDate

4-8 Nov 1996

Firstpage

206

Lastpage

216

Abstract

Petri net theory allows a system to be modeled by a Petri net, an abstract formal model of information flow characterised by controls and constraints. Analysis of the Petri net can then reveal important information about the structure and dynamic behaviour of the modeled system, which can be used to evaluate the modeled system and suggest improvements or changes. This feature can be used in software maintenance. We propose a method for developing a Predicate/Transition net (PrT net) for software maintenance, whereby, software components are reverse engineered and annotated with formal predicates, transformed into a PrT net, and analysed on the PrT net. The advantage of the method is that inconsistencies of a program can be detected and revealed precisely

Keywords

Petri nets; formal specification; reverse engineering; software maintenance; software reusability; Petri net; PrT net; Predicate Transition net; abstract formal model; dynamic behaviour; formal method; formal predicates; information flow; program inconsistency detection; reverse engineering; software annotation; software maintenance; software reuse; specification; system modelling; Software maintenance;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Software Maintenance 1996, Proceedings., International Conference on

Conference_Location

Monterey, CA

ISSN

1063-6773

Print_ISBN

0-8186-7677-9

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ICSM.1996.565008

Filename

565008