The Theory and Practice of A Formal Method: NewCoRe (Proceedings IFIP World Congress, Hamburg August 1994, Invited Paper)
Gerard J. Holzmann · 1994
A new discipline of Formal Methods promises to provide a solid theoretical foundation for software design. Most professionals involved in software design will agree that there is a need for such a foundation. The complexity of the software that controls even the most mundane aspects of our world can be overwhelming. A modern telephone switch, for instance, is controlled by several million lines of control software, that are developed and maintained by hundreds of skilled programmers. Any single change to the code could potentially cause havoc in large fragments of a nationwide telephone network. To prevent this, extremely high requirements must be placed on the quality of the software that goes into a system like this.