Theory-Model Paradigm
The Theory-Model Paradigm is a way of thinking about designs, design methods,
and design validation.
- A design method corresponds to a theory: a
collection of uninterpreted symbols, definitions and axioms, and the theorems
derived from them.
- A design corresponds to an interpretation of a
theory: it gives meaning to the uninterpreted symbols of the theory.
- A validated design is a model of the theory: an interpretation that
satisfies all the axioms.
Accompanying the approach, we have developed a collection of
principles
for applying the paradigm develping formal descriptions.
We do our formalizations in Z: J.M.Spivey, The Z Notation, a Reference
Manual, Prentice-Hall, 1989, 1992. Locally we use the
zed-csp package for LaTeX.