Nitpick: A Checkable Specification Language

Nitpick is a formal specification language designed to be amenable to a new checking method called case enumeration. The paper explains how a compromise was reached in the language’s design between expressive power and tractability. Fragments of a larger specification we have written are given to illustrate the language’s features. Simplified versions of two operations are explained in detail, along with the results of running the Nitpick checker to detect some flaws.