The waveform description language: moving from implementation to specification

Many current research and development activities make significant contributions to the quality of some particular implementation approach. We describe the waveform description language, in which the best characteristics of a variety of distinct programming approaches are exploited so that standard implementation domain practices can be applied in the specification domain. A single WDL specification may be refined to support semi-automated conversion to a variety of implementations. A WDL specification avoids the ambiguities and contradictions characteristic of many conventional specifications with an underlying formality that remains accessible and familiar to programmers.