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Modular specifications in process algebra

With curious queues

  • Part IV An Algebraic Approach To Concurrency
  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Algebraic Methods: Theory, Tools and Applications (Algebraic Methods 1987)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 394))

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Abstract

In recent years a wide variety of process algebras has been proposed in the literature. Often these process algebras are closely related: they can be viewed as homomorphic images, submodels or restrictions of each other. The aim of this paper is to show how the semantical reality, consisting of a large number of closely related process algebras, can be reflected, and even used, on the level of algebraic specifications and in process verifications. This is done by means of the notion of a module. The simplest modules are building blocks of operators and axioms, each block describing a feature of concurrency in a certain semantical setting. These modules can then be combined by means of a union operator +, an export operator □, allowing to forget some operators in a module, an operator H, changing semantics by taking homomorphic images, and an operator S which takes subalgebras. These operators enable us to combine modules in a subtle way, when the direct combination would be inconsistent. We show how auxiliary process algebra operators can be hidden when this is needed. Moreover it is demonstrated how new process combinators can be defined in terms of the more elementary ones in a clean way. As an illustration of our approach, a methodology is presented that can be used to specify FIFO-queues, and that facilitates verification of concurrent systems containing these queues.

extended abstract

Note: The research of the authors was supported by ESPRIT project no. 432, An Integrated Formal Approach to Industrial Software Development (METEOR). The research of the second author was also supported by RACE project no. 1046, Specification and Programming Environment for Communication Software (SPECS). A full version of this paper appeared as [23].

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Mathematics and Computer Science, P.O. Box 4079, 1009 AB, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Rob van Glabbeek & Frits Vaandrager

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  1. Rob van Glabbeek
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  2. Frits Vaandrager
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Martin Wirsing Jan A. Bergstra

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© 1989 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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van Glabbeek, R., Vaandrager, F. (1989). Modular specifications in process algebra. In: Wirsing, M., Bergstra, J.A. (eds) Algebraic Methods: Theory, Tools and Applications. Algebraic Methods 1987. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 394. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0015049

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0015049

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-51698-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-46758-8

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