About cookies on this site Our websites require some cookies to function properly (required). In addition, other cookies may be used with your consent to analyze site usage, improve the user experience and for advertising. For more information, please review your options. By visiting our website, you agree to our processing of information as described in IBM’sprivacy statement. To provide a smooth navigation, your cookie preferences will be shared across the IBM web domains listed here.
Publication
STOC 1978
Conference paper
Data type specification: Parameterization and the power of specification techniques
Abstract
This paper extends our earlier work on abstract data types by providing an algebraic treatment of parametrized data types (e.g., sets-of-( ), stacks-of-( ), etc.), as well as answering a number of questions on the power and limitations of algebraic specification techniques. In brief: we investigate the "hidden function" problem (the need to include operations in specifications which we want to be hidden from the user); we prove that conditional specifications are inherently more powerful than equational specifications; we show that parameterized specifications must contain "side conditions" (e.g., that finite-sets-of-d requires an equality predicate on d), and we compare the power of the algebraic approach taken here with the more categorical approach of Lehman and Smyth.