Specifying Systems: The TLA+ Language and Tools for Hardware and Software Engineers - Tapa blanda

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Leslie Lamport, a computer scientist, is well known for his contributions to concurrent computing and distributed systems. His "Time, Clocks, and the Ordering of Events in a Distributed System" paper has been honored for its enduring influence on the field. Lamport is also known for creating the LaTeX typesetting system and the best-selling book, LaTeX, Second Edition, which documents it (Addison-Wesley, 1994). Now at Microsoft Research in Mountain View, California, he began his work on TLA+ at the Digital (later Compaq) Systems Research Center in Palo Alto. Lamport, who earned his Ph.D. in mathematics from Brandeis University, is a member of the National Academy of Engineering.

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"TLA+ represents the only effective methodology I've seen for visualizing and quantifying algorithmic complexity in a way that is meaningful to engineers."
--Brannon Batson, Processor Architect, Intel Corporation

This long-awaited book shows how to write unambiguous specifications of complex computer systems.

The first part provides a concise and lucid introduction to specification, explaining how to describe, with mathematical precision, the behavioral properties of a system--what that system is allowed to do. The emphasis here is on safety properties.

The second part of the book covers more advanced topics, including liveness and fairness, real-time properties, and composition.

The book's final two parts provide a complete reference manual for the TLA+ language and tools, as well as a handy mini-manual. TLA+ is the language developed by the author for writing simple and elegant specifications of algorithms and protocols and for verifying the correctness of a design. The language already has proved to be a valuable aid in understanding and building concurrent and distributed systems. Tools for TLA+ syntax analysis and model checking are freely available from the Web, where you can also find supplemental materials for this book, including exercises.