Overview of Specs

This is the landing page for Specs. There are several examples. Some large examples are just outlines. Each of these spec examples are consdidered later under Design. Student is assumed to be familiar with the waterfall model.

1. Different Axes of Specs
   1. Functional Specs
   2. Performance/ Resources Specs
   3. Maintainability
   4. A list of different specs by Hoare
2. Seven Sins of a Specifier
   1. Silence
   2. Noise
   3. Overspec
   4. Contradiction
   5. Ambiguity
   6. Forward Reference
   7. Wishful Thinking
   8. Shall we order these based on …?
   9. Meyer, Bertrand, "On Formalism In Specifications", IEEE Software, 1985, vol. 2, no. 1. pp. 6-26. (Meyer is the designer of the excellent OOPL named Eiffel.) Required Reading.
3. Correct by Design, Correct wrt Assertions
4. Specs v Final Programs
5. Software Specs 101 all the above

1. Functional Specs
2. Specifications of Tiny Example Programs
3. Spec of Knuth's Common Words Problem
4. Algebraic Specs: Stack ADT

1. Why can't we specify large programs? What does it take?
   1. Background in Discrete Math
   2. Background in Mathematical Logic
   3. Background in Functional Programming
   4. Extensive Experience in Software Development + Maintenance
2. Wicked Problems
3. Specifications of SLOC 10000+ Example Programs

1. Some times the references are embedded in the notes.