Pandora's Box
Ronald Middelkoop, Cornelis Huizing, Ruurd Kuiper, E.J. Luit · EPiC series in computing · 2018
An algebraic specification is viewed as a black box that rewrites input to a ``most basic'' canonical form. We argue that a canonical form should be given for each specific specification, to prevent ``cheating'' in the implementation. Furthermore, we argue that the definition of the canonical form may sometimes require semantic rather than syntactic information. To relate an OO implementation to a specification requires opening the black box to some extent; we assess the choices to be made here.