Dear Readers,

The papers in this issue constitute a survey of "The State of the Art in Formal Methods". A collection of papers on this topic was originally commissioned from one of our Foundation Editors, Richard Banach, for a publication with highly restricted visiblity. As it turned out, Richard was fortunate enough to be able to compile a collection of papers, all carefully reviewed, from an outstanding set of authors, and it was felt that the collection merited greater permanence and visibility in the literature. Accordingly, J.UCS is pleased to host these papers in a Special Issue on the contemporary scene in Formal Methods.

The current Formal Methods scene, particularly as it has developed over the last decade or so, is quite a bit different from what one might suppose as a result of picking up a random textbook having a title plausibly connected with this topic. Various kinds of static analysis, built into automated tools, are transforming what was once seen as a field exclusively concerned with proving things interactively, to something much more accessible to systems engineers in general. In his Guest Editorial, Richard sketches the historical background, outlines the present state of the field, and briefly introduces the more specialised papers in the remainder of the collection. I hope you enjoy reading this survey of how things are today in Formal Methods.

Cordially,
Hermann Maurer