Ursula Martin – författare

The papers in this volume were presented at the First International Workshop on Larch, held at MIT Endicott House near Boston on 13-15 July 1992. Larch is a family of formal specification languages and tools, and this workshop was a forum for those who have designed the Larch languages, built tool support for them, particularly the Larch Prover, and used them to specify and reason about software and hardware systems. The Larch Project started in 1980, led by John Guttag at MIT and James Horning, then at Xerox/Palo Alto Research Center and now at Digital Equipment Corporation/Systems Research Center (DEC/SRC). Major applications have included VLSI circuit synthesis, medical device communications, compiler development and concurrent systems based on Lamport''s TLA, as well as several applications to classical theorem proving and algebraic specification. Larch supports a two-tiered approach to specifying software and hardware modules. One tier of a specification is wrillen in the Larch Shared Language (LSL). An LSL specification describes mathematical abstractions such as sets, relations, and algebras; its semantics is defined in terms of first-order theories. The second tier is written in a Larch interface language, one designed for a specific programming language. An interface specification describes the effects of individual modules, e.g. state changes, resource allocation, and exceptions; its semantics is defined in terms of first-order predicates over two states, where state is defined in terms of the programming language''s notion of state. Thus, LSL is programming language independent; a Larch interface language is programming language dependent.

The bestselling author of One Woman Walks Wales travels from Ukraine to the UK. In this epic test of stamina and will, 5500 miles over 2 years, Ursula starts in Kyiv and crosses Ukraine, Romania,Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia, Croatia, Slovenia, Italy, France, Spain and the UK.

Having returned home for Christmas from time out travelling in Europe, what should have been a routine trip to the doctor left 31- year-old Ursula with a diagnosis of Stage 1A Ovarian cancer. Only 46% of all UK women diagnosed with ovarian cancer will still be alive 5 years later. Determined not to sink into self-pity Ursula decided that she would continue her travels and walk between her home in mid Wales and hospital appointments in Bristol. This decision led to her plan to walk Wales publicising the need for early detection for the disease which kills far too many patients due to ignorance of symptoms. In the 17 months it took to walk Wales, Ursula's journey took her across, around, up, over and through all of Wales from beaches to mountains, farms to urban sprawl. She met many sheep and a surprising number of walkers keen to accompany her for part of her journey. Ursula raised over 11,000 pounds for her two chosen charities. One Woman Walks Wales is a story of determination, tears and laughter, joy and pain, and a fascinating insight into not just one woman during a testing time, but a country, its landscape and its people.

The papers in this volume were presented at the First International Workshop on Larch, held at MIT Endicott House near Boston on 13-15 July 1992. Larch is a family of formal specification languages and tools, and this workshop was a forum for those who have designed the Larch languages, built tool support for them, particularly the Larch Prover, and used them to specify and reason about software and hardware systems. The Larch Project started in 1980, led by John Guttag at MIT and James Horning, then at Xerox/Palo Alto Research Center and now at Digital Equipment Corporation/Systems Research Center (DEC/SRC). Major applications have included VLSI circuit synthesis, medical device communications, compiler development and concurrent systems based on Lamport's TLA, as well as several applications to classical theorem proving and algebraic specification. Larch supports a two-tiered approach to specifying software and hardware modules. One tier of a specification is wrillen in the Larch Shared Language (LSL). An LSL specification describes mathematical abstractions such as sets, relations, and algebras; its semantics is defined in terms of first-order theories. The second tier is written in a Larch interface language, one designed for a specific programming language. An interface specification describes the effects of individual modules, e.g. state changes, resource allocation, and exceptions; its semantics is defined in terms of first-order predicates over two states, where state is defined in terms of the programming language's notion of state. Thus, LSL is programming language independent; a Larch interface language is programming language dependent.