Practical Formal Software Engineering
Wanting the Software You Get

A practically-minded software engineering textbook aimed at final year undergraduate and graduate students.

Bruce Mills (Author)

9781108818643, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 19 December 2019

376 pages
24.7 x 19 x 2 cm, 0.7 kg

'This work is a fascinating course resource. Mills (software engineer, ABB, Australia) successfully manages to create an appealing and informative book while respecting the rigor and method required by formal software engineering. … the true winner in this book is the writing style, which coupled with the organization of the content, creates a compelling learning experience that a competent instructor can use to build an engaging course.' Choice

Based around a theme of the construction of a game engine, this textbook is for final year undergraduate and graduate students, emphasising formal methods in writing robust code quickly. This book takes an unusual, engineering-inspired approach to illuminate the creation and verification of large software systems. Where other textbooks discuss business practices through generic project management techniques or detailed rigid logic systems, this book examines the interaction between code in a physical machine and the logic applied in creating the software. These elements create an informal and rigorous study of logic, algebra, and geometry through software. Assuming prior experience with C, C++, or Java programming languages, chapters introduce UML, OCL, and Z from scratch. Extensive worked examples motivate readers to learn the languages through the technical side of software science.

Part I. Fundamentals: 1. Arithmetic
2. Logic
3. Algebra
4. Diagrams
Part II. Language: 5. UML
6. OCL
7. Z
8. Logic
9. Java
Part III. Practice: 10. Implementation
11. State transformation
12. Plain text
13. Natural language
14. Digital geometry
15. Building dungeons
16. Multiple threads
17. Security.

Subject Areas: Software Engineering [UMZ]