"In the mathematics I can report no deficience, except that it be that
men do not sufficiently understand the excellent use of the pure
mathematics, in that they do remedy and cure many defects in the wit and
faculties intellectual. For if the wit be too dull, they sharpen it; if
too wandering, they fix it; if too inherent in the sense, they abstract
it. " Roger Bacon (1214?-1294?) "Mathematics-the art and science of
effective reasoning. " E. W. Dijkstra, 1976 "A person who had studied at
a good mathematical school can do anything. " Ye. Bunimovich, 2000 This
is the third book published by Kluwer based on the very successful
OOPSLA workshops on behavioral semantics (the first two books were
published in 1996 [KH 1996] and 1999 [KRS 1999]). These workshops
fostered precise and explicit specifications of business and system
semantics, independently of any (possible) realization. Some progress
has been made in these areas, both in academia and in industry. At the
same time, in too many cases only lip service to elegant specifica-
tions of semantics has been provided, and as a result the systems we
build or buy are all too often not what they are supposed to be. We used
to live with that, and quite often users relied on human intermediaries
to "sort the things out. " This approach worked perfectly well for a
long time.