Customer Reviews

Abstract State Machines: A Method for High-Level System Design and Analysis

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This is a well written good about an interesting, sensible formalism. I haven't tried using any of it in my line of work yet, but I'm pretty sure I will. Abstract State Machines (ASMs) are based on guarded, synchronously concurrent state transitions, with state effectively defined as a (finite) set of named, finite relations. The core of the formalism seems very simple and elegant and lends itself to clear, concise models at both high and low levels of abstraction. I believe it is more readily comprehended by practicioners than purely algebraic and / or functional approaches, being firmly rooted in the notion of state, operational abstract execution runs and state changes.
They models can be designed in a modular and composable manner in a natural way. The book gives a clear, rigorous account of it all, is readable and well organized, and positively loaded with helpul examples and references. My only complaint is that fully asynchronous (i.e. distributed) systems seem to get somewhat of a short thrift.

Overall, I am really excited about this stuff, and looking forward to a time when all system development can be undertaken and supported with such elegant, refinable models, as opposed to the hodgepodge scripting-language-centric mess that is the current practice.