NDLI: Formal relational database design: an exercise in extending the formal template language

Content Provider	Springer Nature Link
Author	Wu, Nicolas Simpson, Andrew
Copyright Year	2014
Abstract	The use of formal description techniques aims to prevent the defects found in software that arise due to poor planning at the design stage. However, the ensuing specifications are often designed with only a single application in mind and are not easily generalised. One area in which these deficiencies arise is that of the formal modelling of relational databases: many authors have drawn parallels between the formal description language, Z, and the relational model of data, but none of these contributions have managed to be both close to the relational model in terms of providing a practical means of database design and fully formal in terms of providing an appropriate metamodel. In this paper, we describe a generative template language, based on the formal template language (FTL). In particular, we extend the FTL, which was developed originally as means of expressing templates, to underpin an approach that facilitates the reuse of specifications in Z, paying particular attention to the formal design of relational databases. These templates encapsulate the common structure found in specifications and can be instantiated to produce specifications tailored to suit particular needs. To achieve this, we extend the FTL and present a mechanism for naming and referencing templates. We also introduce the semantics of template annotations to enforce the syntactic correctness of instantiations.
Starting Page	1231
Ending Page	1269
Page Count	39
File Format	PDF
ISSN	09345043
Journal	Formal Aspects of Computing
Volume Number	26
Issue Number	6
e-ISSN	1433299X
Language	English
Publisher	Springer London
Publisher Date	2014-05-27
Publisher Place	London
Access Restriction	Subscribed
Subject Keyword	Formal Template Language Z notation Software patterns Metamodels Math Applications in Computer Science Theory of Computation Computational Mathematics and Numerical Analysis
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Theoretical Computer Science Software

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