Quint: A specification language based on the temporal logic of actions (TLA)

by abathologiston 12/19/23, 11:19 AMwith 35 comments
by Nevermarkon 12/20/23, 6:50 PM

> We have covered all the aspects of our "Hello, world!" example. Actually, we could have written a much shorter example, but it would not demonstrate the distinctive features of Quint.

Ouch! When I am trying to wrap my head around a new tool, I want a series of examples starting with the absolute simplest possible example.

If I can see only one new concept demonstrated at a time, each in the simplest context possible, I can quickly develop a clear understanding. By quickly, I mean a solid understanding in minutes.

Anything else just generates questions (and am I even thinking the right questions?) at a faster rate than lightbulbs.

by asimpletuneon 12/20/23, 1:52 PM

I'm trying to understand what is the difference between this and using TLA.

For example, what is the difference between "robust theoretical basis of the Temporal Logic of Actions (TLA)" and "state-of-the-art static analysis"?

Sorry, I'm not an expert in TLA, but I thought that static analysis was basically what it was used for.

by crabboneon 12/20/23, 1:52 PM

One thing that was a demotivating factor (for me) about TLA+ is the syntax (I later realized that there's a more high-level language that looks more like a programming language and less like markup: PlusCal, but it was too late :). This looks a lot nicer.

by enigmassiveon 12/21/23, 4:33 AM

This is something I really wanted to build when I learned about TLA+ over a year ago. Taking the core idea into a modern language and toolings. Congratulations that you actually did it!

by just_mcon 12/20/23, 1:36 PM

This looks really nice. It's the first thing I have seen that appears to be approachable from a developer's perspective.

by Kevin09210on 12/20/23, 1:58 PM

Clojure to TLA+

https://github.com/Viasat/salt

Successor: https://github.com/Viasat/halite

by nextaccounticon 12/20/23, 8:36 PM

How do you compare this with Alloy?

by metaketaon 12/19/23, 8:34 PM

Recommended introduction talk for context:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZIX8rs-kOA&ab_channel=Gatew...

TLDR: compileable modeling language to model the high-level protocol of your blockchain (or any distributed system). It's a "digitalization" step of plain written English protocol specifications to code.

by cyanydeezon 12/21/23, 12:02 AM

this sounds like something you'd plug into an LLM asA AGI

by zubairqon 12/20/23, 2:12 PM

Interesting