The Generic Development Language Deva: Presentation and Case Studies

This book summarizes work done by the authors under the

Esprit Tool Use project (1985-1990), at GMD in Karlsruhe and

at Berlin University of Technology. It provides a

comprehensive description of the generic development

language Deva designed by the authors. Much of the research

reported in this monograph is inspired by the work of Michel

Sintzoff on formal program development; he contributed an

enlightening Foreword.

Deva is essentially a typed functional language with certain

deduction rules. The difference with ordinary languages is,

of course, the application domain: the types serve here to

express propositions such as specifications or programs,

rather than just data classes. Its practical applicability

was tested on several non-trivial case studies. The whole

book is written using the DVWEB system, a WEB for Deva,

beeing implemented at the Berlin University of Technology.