Preface
I look to the future because that's where I'm going to spend the rest of my life.
—George Burns
In this book, I have tried to introduce temporal logics and then show why they might be useful in system specification, verification and development. That I can even attempt this is due to the work of very many outstanding researchers who have tackled this area over the last 30 years. I am enormously indebted to these people for their research on defining, refining and expanding this subject and so making my task here at least possible. (For an indication of who at least some of the key researchers are, just look at the References section at the end of this book.) Never has the motto ‘standing on the shoulders of giants’ seemed more appropriate.
As well as reading, and hearing, about the work of such experts, I have been very fortunate to have collaborated directly with quite a few of them. Though I cannot list everyone I have worked with (the references will again identify some of them), I would like to thank all of them for helping me to understand the area a little better. I have always learnt a great deal from all of them, and value their continued collaboration.
Finally, I would like to thank those who have provided detailed comments on earlier drafts of this book. Their advice and suggestions have been invaluable: Rafael Bordini; Stéphane Demri; Jürgen Dix; Clare Dixon; Valentin Goranko; Anthony Hepple; Koen Hindriks; Gerard Holzmann; Alexei Lisitsa; Alessio Lomuscio; ...
