Formal architectural abstractions for interactive software

✍ Scribed by PANOS MARKOPOULOS; PETER JOHNSON; JON ROWSON

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1998
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 800 KB
• Volume: 49
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1071-5819
• DOI: 10.1006/ijhc.1998.0223

✦ Synopsis

This paper discusses formal interactor models, a class of abstractions for modelling user interface software that incorporate elements of its structure. The abstraction-display-controller (ADC) interactor model is one such abstraction which draws on research into user interface architectures and on earlier approaches to the formal specification of user interfaces. The ADC interactor model is specified formally using the LOTOS specification language. As a concept and as a representation scheme the ADC interactor model applies both to the user interface as a whole and also to its components. This property is preserved when interactors are combined to describe more complex entities or, conversely, when an interactor is decomposed into smaller-scale interactors. The paper includes a discussion of the ADC model and its use for the verification of user-interface software.