Should Your Specification Language Be Typed?

Leslie Lamport

Digital Systems Research Center

The advantages of types in programming languages are well known. Most computer scientists assume without thought that types should also be used in a specification language. Giving it some thought reveals that types are not as benign as they may seem. Types are not necessary, and untyped set theory provides a powerful, convenient basis for a specification language -- even one with types.


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Last modified: November 9, 1998
Robert Blumofe
rdb@cs.utexas.edu