Applying Abstraction and Formal Specification in Numerical Software Design

摘要

Numerical software development tends to struggle with an increasing complexity.The article shows how abstraction is used to combat complexity. It motivates that separating a specification, 'what', its realization, 'how', and its implementation, 'when, where', is of vital importance in software development. The main point is that development steps and levels of abstraction are identified, such that the obtained software has a clear and natural structure. Development steps can be cast into a formal, i.e. mathematical framework, which leads to rigorous software development. This way of development leads to accurate and unambiguous recording of development steps, which simplifies maintenance, extension and porting of software. Portability is especially important in the field of parallel computing where no universal parallel computer model exists.