Interface Consistency

Jørgen Staunstrup
Department of Information Technology,
Technical University of Denmark,
DK-2800 Lyngby, Denmark

tel: +45 4525 3740 fax: +45 4593 0074

Email: jst@it.dtu.dk http://www.it.dtu.dk/$\sim$jst

Abstract:

This paper proposes that Interface Consistency is an important issue for the development of modular designs. By providing a precise specification of component interfaces it becomes possible to check that separately developed components use a common interface in a coherent matter thus avoiding a very significant source of design errors. A wide range of interface specifications are possible, the simplest form is a syntactical check of parameter types. However, today it is possible to do more sophisticated forms involving semantic checks.

Keywords: Interfaces, consistency checking, formal verification, modular design, design languages.