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arXiv:1603.03599cs.SE

Alloy meets TLA+: An exploratory study

Nuno Macedo, Alcino Cunha

Abstract

Alloy and TLA+ are two formal specification languages that are increasingly popular due to their simplicity and flexibility, as well as the effectiveness of their companion model checkers, the Alloy Analyzer and TLC, respectively. Nonetheless, while TLA+ focuses on temporal properties, Alloy is better suited to handle structural properties, requiring ad hoc mechanisms to reason about temporal properties. Thus, both have limitations in the specification and analysis of systems rich in both static and dynamic properties. This paper explores the pros and cons of these two frameworks when handling this class of systems through the step-by-step modeling, specification and verification of an example.

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cs.SESoftware Engineering

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  1. Verdi – Formally Verifying Distributed Systems (2016) 1 comment

    • The only in-depth study I know about is "Alloy meets TLA+".[1] Their conclusion was that Alloy is much more flexible and easier to use _unless_ your system is dynamic, because you have to manually model time in Alloy. [1] https://arxiv.org/pdf/1603.03599.pdf

      hwayneView on HNParent context

  2. Formal Methods in Practice: Using TLA+ at ESpark 1 comment

    • In that they're both modeling languages, yes. Alloy is more geared toward algorithms, while TLA+ is more geared toward concurrent systems. This paper has a good comparison: https://arxiv.org/abs/1603.03599

      colandermanView on HNParent context

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