Formal Specification of Graphics Software

There is currently much interest, both in academia and industry, in the development and application of formal methods for the specification of computer systems. The need for formal specification is first examined, and broad outlines of current approaches are given. The paper then reviews in more detail the application of such techniques to the specification of graphics systems, in particular standards for computer graphics. The paper concludes with a substantial example taken from the author’s own work towards a formal description of the ISO standard for computer graphics programming, the Graphical Kernel System (GKS).

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