Towards Integrating Algebraic Specification and Functional Programming: the Opal System (Extended Abstract)

The Opal system has been used in teaching and research activities. The experience that we have gained from working on and with the Opal system indicates that, functional programming is indeed well suited for producing “real-life” software. This result coincides with the findings of other research teams working in this area. The integration of algebraic specification constructs into a functional language as it is done in the Opal system helps in closing the gap between the two worlds of formal specification and efficient implementation. We feel confident that the functional paradigm, supported by formal methods, will eventually provide a basis for industrial software development.