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muz

The program `muz' (Melbourne University Z) is a Z syntax/type checker.
For information on Z, see:

	 http://www.comlab.ox.ac.uk/archive/z.html

Muz takes as input Z source written using the zed-csp.sty latex macros
(which are included in this distribution).  Muz recognises input
that conforms to the Spivey Z syntax but with extensions from the
draft Z standard (see muz_zed_syntax.txt and example.tex). 
It accepts arguments as follows:

Usage: muz [options] <filename(s)>
Options:
        -a-, --no-abbreviate
                Turn off use of type abbreviations.
        -t <toolkit>, --toolkit <toolkit>
                Typecheck with the specified toolkit, overiding the
                builtin default and MUZ_TOOLKIT environment variable
                (-t- for typechecking without a toolkit).
        -?, -h, --help
                Print this usage message.
        -d, --debug
                Write debugging information to stdout.

The standard Z toolkit is included as toolkit.tex.  Muz will expect
to find it in the place indicated by the definition

	default_toolkit = "/usr/local/apps/muz/lib/toolkit.tex".

in the file word.m.  You can change this or use the MUZ_TOOLKIT environment
variable.  To make muz, cd to the src directory and type:

	mmake depend
	mmake muz

You can then test that its running correctly by running

	./muz example.tex

which should give the result

	No errors detected.

and running

	./muz example1.tex

which should give the result

	example1.tex:14: Type mismatch in equation--
		Equation: b = f 2
		Types: CHAIR = \num.
	example1.tex:15: Type mismatch in function application--
		Expression: f b
		Expected: \num
		Found: CHAIR.
	Errors detected.

Muz was written so that I could learn (in detail!) about Z and its type
system, learn Mercury, and ultimately as a basis for research in
analysing and transforming formal specifications.  While it is fairly
robust and appears to work correctly, I give no guarantees about its
behaviour.  Further, while I wrote the code, the Mercury team developed
both the language and the compiler:  the source to muz probably
includes code to work around compiler bugs that have long since
disappeared.  This, however, doesn't excuse the lack of comments in my
code, a bad habit I haven't been able to avoid when writing code
intended only for my own consumption (though by now I should know these
things always escape from the lab).

My thanks to the Mercury team for developing a productive programming
language, for fixing the bugs I found promptly, and for keeping the size
of the source down by occasionally moving some of it into Mercury libraries
for me.  However I won't apologise to them for how I format my Mercury code.

Philip Dart  3 November 1998