LADA - a logic for the analysis of distributed actions

Alan Dix

At time of publication: School of Computing and Mathematics, University of Huddersfield
Currently: Lancaster University
alan@hcibook.com


Paper presented at DSV-IS'94 Carrera, Italy, - the first Eurographics Workshop on the Design Specification and Verification of Interactive Systems.

Download full paper in PDF (66K) or compressed postscript (77K) .

Full reference:

A. Dix (1995).
LADA - A logic for the analysis of distributed action.
Interactive Systems: Design, Specification and Verification,, Ed. F. Paterno. (Proceedings of 1st Eurographics Workshop, Bocca di Magra, Italy, June 1994), Springer-Verlag. pp. 317-332.
http://www.hcibook.com/alan/papers/LADA/


Abstract

This paper presents a formalism, lada, aimed especially at the description of systems and situations which arise during the design and analysis of groupware. We are particularly interested in highly distributed systems and so lada explicitly models entities (people and things) acting at different unconnected locations. It not only describes the behaviour of the computer software, but also the social protocols required for its successful use. Temporal logic formulae which follow the subjective history of people and other entities are used to simplify the expression of some of the complicated properties required of real systems.


Alan Dix 7/7/97