TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Why Use Formal Language in Specs (aka "formal specs")?
Subject:Why Use Formal Language in Specs (aka "formal specs")? From:"Le Vie, DonaldX S" <donaldx -dot- s -dot- le -dot- vie -at- intel -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Tue, 16 Jan 2001 08:57:34 -0800
Here's more info on formal specs:
Why Use Formal Specifications?
Formal specifications are:
* precise
* clear
* unambiguous
* provable
* can reason with formal specs (inference)
(natural languages aren't)
Formal specifications should be used for:
* safety critical systems
* security systems
* the definition of standards
* hardware development
* operating systems
* transaction processing systems
* anything that is hard, complex, or critical
There are some drawbacks...
1. Cost: it can be almost as costly to do a full formal specification as to
do all the coding. Solution: don't formally specify everything, just the
subsystems you need to (hard, complex, or critical)
2. Not everybody can read formal specs (especially customers and users)
Solution: get real!
3. No one wants to read pure formal specs -- formal specs should always be
interspersed with natural language (e.g. English) explanation.
Donn Le Vie
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Develop HTML-Based Help with Macromedia Dreamweaver 4 ($100 STC Discount)
**WEST COAST LOCATIONS** San Jose (Mar 1-2), San Francisco (Apr 16-17) http://www.weisner.com/training/dreamweaver_help.htm or 800-646-9989.
Sponsored by DigiPub Solutions Corp, producers of PDF 2001
Conference East, June 4-5, Baltimore/Washington D.C. area. http://www.pdfconference.com or toll-free 877/278-2131.
---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as: archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot- Visit http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.
