Practical Formal Software Engineering: Wanting the Software You Get

Description

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.

Bruce Mills holds a Ph.D. in computer science and mathematics from the University of Western Australia, Perth. He has twenty years of experience in the industrial electronics and software fields, and as a lecturer in his native country, Wales, and the Middle East. Dr Mills is the author of Theoretical Introduction to Programming (2010).

'This book, including its exercises and projects, needs to be worked through. It brings formal methods down to earth, where they belong, but emphatically not in the 'For Dummies' sense. I highly recommend it.' George Hacken, Reviews.com '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