Part I deals with basic specifications--first many-sorted, then subsorted; Part II provides structured specifications; Part III summarizes so-called architectural specifications, which, in contrast to the foregoing specifications, prescribe the separate development of composable, reusable implementation units; and finally Part IV considers libraries of definitions. For each kind of specification, the main underlying semantic concepts are summarized, then the abstract syntax of the language constructs is given and its semantics is described informally.
An Appendix provides a complete grammar for the abstract syntax of the language. The sort and constructor symbols used in the abstract syntax are reasonably suggestive of their intended interpretation, so reading this grammar may be the easiest way to get a quick overview of the language.
N.B. No consideration has yet been given to concrete syntax in the Tentative Design! The constructor symbols of the abstract syntax are not intended for use as key-words, nor is the order of components of constructs necessarily that to be used in concrete syntax.
A Bibliography provides references to related documents.
Another Appendix lists some proposed changes (additions) to the tentative design. These were discussed at the Edinburgh meeting and proposed in the draft of the present document, but it was felt that some further investigation was needed before incorporating them. (This investigation had not been completed by the time this document was released.)
The (rudimentary) Index may facilitate locating the places where terminology is explained.