VDMTools: advances in support for formal modeling in VDM
We describe the current status of "VDMTools", a group of tools supporting the analysis of system models expressed in the formal language of the Vienna Development Method. Three dialects of the language are supported: the ISO standard VDM specification language with support for modular structuring, the extension VDM++ which supports object-oriented structuring and concurrency, and a version extending VDM++ with features for modeling and analysing distributed embedded real-time systems. VDMTools provides extensive static semantics checking, automatic code generation, round-trip mapping to UML class diagrams, documentation support, test coverage analysis and debugging support. The tools' focus is on supporting the cost-effective development and exploitation of formal models in industrial settings. The paper presents the components of VDMTools and reports recent experience using them for the development of large models.
vdm tool support vienna development method formal methods validation