The design and implementation of a syntax directed editor for the specification language Spec

Abstract

The formal specification language Spec is used for writing black-box specifications for large software systems. These black-box specifications describe the interface beteen a system and its users, as well as internal interfaces between modules. Systems analysts use specifications written in Spec to verify the customer's requirements during the development of a software system. This thesis demonstrates the feasibility of designing and implementing a syntax directed editor for a subset of the specification language Spec. The editor is a software tool for writing Spec specifications that ensures syntactic correctness of such specifications. The syntax directed editor is created using the Synthesizer Generator, a Computer-Aided Software Engineering (CASE) tool for generating language-based editors. The specification for the editor is written in the Synthesizer Specification Language (SSL) which is based on an attribute grammar. The software tool developed in this thesis supports the Requirements Analysis phase of the software development cycle.