JML is a behavioral interface specification language tailored to Java. It is designed to be written and read by working software engineers, and should require only modest mathematical training. It uses Eiffel-style syntax combined with model-based semantics, as in VDM and Larch. JML supports quantifiers, specification-only variables, and other enhancements that make it more expressive for specification than Eiffel and easier to use than VDM and Larch. JML [Leavens-Baker-Ruby01], which stands

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... "Java Modeling Language," is a behavioral interface specification language (BISL) [Wing87] designed to specify Java [Arnold-Gosling98] [Gosling-Joy-Steele96] modules. Java modules are classes and interfaces. A behavioral interface specification describes both the details of a module's interface with clients, and its behavior from the client's point of view. Such specifications are not good for the specification of whole programs, but are good for recording detailed design decisions or documentation of intended behavior, for a software module. The goal of this chapter is to explain JML and the concepts behind its approach to specification. Since JML is used in detailed design of Java modules, we use the detailed design of an interface and class for priority queues as an example. The rest of this section explains interfaces and behavioral interface specification. In the next section we describe how to specify new types as conceptual models for detailed design. Following that we finish the example by giving the details of a class specification. We conclude after mentioning some other features of JML.