Magdalina Todorova

Educational framework for verification of object-oriented programs

This article presents an educational framework, designed to support knowledge acquisition and skills development pertinent to program validation and in particular to formal methods for verification of object-oriented programs. The framework is intended to span from undergraduate classes, for junior and sophomore students, up to advanced classes, for graduate students. It supports distinct levels of access targeting: i) beginner, ii) intermediate, and iii) advanced users. Background knowledge and preliminarily acquired skills, associated with each access level, are well defined and reflected into the interaction interface that the framework presents to the user. For completeness, a reference description of the formal program verification method employed in the framework is included in the text, along with the underlying mathematical means supporting the method.

Methodological aspects of an approach for verification of object-oriented programs

Generalized nets (GN) are created as a tool for modeling and controlling real processes. The mathematical tools which GNs have make them an effective and convenient instrument for software modeling. Models of software systems can be created by means of GN; specifications of properties, connections between software modules, relations between classes and member functions of classes can be defined; properties of software systems can be proven. The paper describes an application of the GN for building models of programs, for defining specifications, describing properties and relationships between program units, for verification of object-oriented programs (OOP). An approach for verification of OOP is presented from methodological point of view. The approach is intended for research and educational purposes.