Preserving the Causal and Structural Properties of Real-time Systems Using Object Oriented Speciication in Cleopatra

The speci cation of a real time system is often the result of a process whereby a conceptual control sys tem is eshed out as a computer program To be accu rate this process must preserve important causal and structural properties of the control system For ex ample if the control system has multiple functional components operating concurrently then the process of mapping these components into a computer pro gram executing on a single processor must ensure that these components do not interact in ways that are physically impossible In this paper we review our work on CLEOPATRA an object oriented speci cation and programming language that restricts expressive ness in a way that allows the speci cation of only re active spontaneous and causal computation Unre alistic systems possessing properties such as in nite capacities or perfect timing cannot even be speci ed We argue that this ounce of prevention at the speci cation level is likely to spare a lot of time and energy in the development cycle not to mention the elimination of potential hazards that would have gone otherwise unnoticed