The Formal Design Model of Doubly-Linked-Circular Lists (DLC-Lists)

Abstract

Abstract Data Types (ADTs) are a set of highly generic and rigorously modeled data structures in type theory. Lists as a finite sequence of elements are one of the most fundamental and widely used ADTs in system modeling, which provide a standard encapsulation and access interface for manipulating large-volume information and persistent data. This paper develops a comprehensive design pattern of formal lists using a doubly-linked-circular (DLC) list architecture. A rigorous denotational mathematics, Real-Time Process Algebra (RTPA), is adopted, which allows both architectural and behavioral models of lists to be rigorously designed and implemented in a top-down approach. The architectural models of DLC-Lists are created using RTPA architectural modeling methodologies known as the Unified Data Models (UDMs). The behavioral models of DLC-Lists are specified and refined by a set of Unified Process Models (UPMs) in three categories namely the management operations, traversal operations, and node I/O operations. This work has been applied in a number of real-time and nonreal-time system designs such as a real-time operating system (RTOS+), a file management system (FMS), and the ADT library for an RTPA-based automatic code generation tool.