Mechanical Tool Support for High Integrity Software Development
Michael Mehlich, Ira D. Baxter · 1998
Since the failure of a high integrity software system has a huge cost, it is important to develop reliable, trustworthy software for such systems that is very unlikely to fail due to coding errors. This high level of software reliability has to be preserved for the life-time of the system, even as its requirements and implementation change. One method for achieving this level of reliability is to formalize the software development process, and provide mechanical tools to support it, to ensure that no process errors are induced in the final code developed from a formal specification. Mechanical modification of the steps for constructing the system then can ensure that this high degree of reliability is preserved. We sketch a tool, the Design Maintenance System (DMS), which we are constructing. DMS provides the type of support required to perform these activities mechanically with interactive support, and discuss how this tool can help constructing and maintaining reliable, tr...