Springer Book: Formal Methods for Software Engineering

Cover of the book Rechnung auff der Linihen und Federn by Adam Ries, Sachsse, Erffurdt, 1529. Digitized by SLUB Dresden.

This is the website accompanying the book Formal Methods for Software Engineering - Languages, Methods, Application Domains by Markus Roggenbach, Antonio Cerone, Bernd-Holger Schlingloff, Gerardo Schneider, Siraj Ahmed Shaikh, published by Springer in 2022.

Resources

The image above shows detail from the cover of the book “Rechnung auff der Linihen und Federn” by Adam Ries, Sachsse, Erffurdt, 1529. 1

It depicts the following scene:

A table-abacus competes against longhand calculations using ‘Arabic’ numerals, which were still new in Europe. Either one could trounce calculating by hand with Roman numerals — but which was faster? Are the coins a wager on the outcome? 2

In his book Ries describes two practices: working with the calculation board (established practice) and numerical calculations with digits (new practice). Historically, as we all know, the new practice as the superior one took over. In the same sense, the authors of this book hope that their advocated approach of utilising Formal Methods in software engineering will prove to be of advantage and become the new standard.

  1. Cover of the book “Rechnung auff der Linihen und Federn” by Adam Ries, Sachsse, Erffurdt, 1529. Digitized by SLUB Dresden. Link to the image. Link to the rights notice. ↩

  2. Quoted from https://www.computerhistory.org/revolution/calculators/1/38/139. ↩