Relating CASL with other specification languages: the institution level

Abstract

In this work, we investigate various specification languages and their relation to C ASL, the recently developed Common Algebraic Specification Language. In particular, we consider the languages Larch, OBJ3 and functional CafeOBJ, ACT ONE, ASF, and HEP-theories, as well as various sublanguages of C ASL. All these languages are translated to an appropriate sublanguage of C ASL. The translation mainly concerns the level of specification in-the-small: the logics underlying the languages are formalized as institutions, and representations among the institutions are developed. However, it is also considered how these translations interact with specification in-the-large. Thus, we obtain, on the one hand, translations of any of the above-mentioned specification languages to an appropriate sublanguage of C ASL. This allows us to take libraries and case studies that have been developed for other languages and re-use them in C ASL. On the other hand, we set up institution representations going from the C ASL institution (and some of its subinstitutions) to simpler subinstitutions. Given a theorem proving tool for such a simpler subinstitution, with the help of a representation, it can also be used for a more complex institution. Thus, first-order theorem provers and conditional term rewriting tools become usable for C ASL.