Casl the Common Algebraic Speciication Language 1

Casl is an expressive language for the formal speciication of functional requirements and modular design of software. It has been designed by CoFI, the international Common Framework Initiative for algebraic speciication and development. It is based on a critical selection of features that have already been explored in various contexts, including subsorts, partial functions, rst-order logic, and structured and architectural speciications. Casl should facilitate interoperability of many existing algebraic prototyping and veriication tools. This paper gives an overview of the Casl design. The major issues that had to be resolved in the design process are indicated, and all the main concepts and constructs of Casl are brieey explained and illustrated|the reader is referred to the Casl Language Summary for further details. Some familiarity with the fundamental concepts of algebraic speciication would be advantageous.