Larch/Smalltalk: A Specification Language for Smalltalk
Date
Authors
Major Professor
Advisor
Committee Member
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Authors
Research Projects
Organizational Units
Computer Science—the theory, representation, processing, communication and use of information—is fundamentally transforming every aspect of human endeavor. The Department of Computer Science at Iowa State University advances computational and information sciences through; 1. educational and research programs within and beyond the university; 2. active engagement to help define national and international research, and 3. educational agendas, and sustained commitment to graduating leaders for academia, industry and government.
History
The Computer Science Department was officially established in 1969, with Robert Stewart serving as the founding Department Chair. Faculty were composed of joint appointments with Mathematics, Statistics, and Electrical Engineering. In 1969, the building which now houses the Computer Science department, then simply called the Computer Science building, was completed. Later it was named Atanasoff Hall. Throughout the 1980s to present, the department expanded and developed its teaching and research agendas to cover many areas of computing.
Dates of Existence
1969-present
Related Units
- College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (parent college)
Journal Issue
Is Version Of
Versions
Series
Department
Abstract
Larch/Smalltalk is a Larch interface specification language for Smalltalk with subtype relations. As a Larch-style language it benefits from two-tiered approach to specifications; separation of concerns, division of effort, and reusability. Subtype relationships helps to reuse and modularize specifications. A unit of specification in Larch/Smalltalk is called a type, which describes an abstraction of a set of Smalltalk classes. Complex specifications can be constructed by defining a type to be a subtype of other types, called its supertypes, thereby, inheriting their specifications. Specifications can also be parameterized to specify a family of related types. To encourage specifications to be used in the programming process, specification development tools have been implemented in Smalltalk. They are integrated in the Smalltalk-80 system. Using these tools, a portion of Smalltalk system classes and a part of the tools themselves have been specified.