Howard Bowman - Böcker

This text presents the leading edge in several related fields, specifically object-orientated programming, open distributed systems and formal methods for object-oriented systems. Topics discussed include: object-oriented design and programming; formal specification of distributed systems; open distributed platforms; types, interfaces and behaviour; and formalization of object-oriented methods. This volume comprises the proceedings of the International Workshop on Formal Methods for Open Object-based Distributed Systems (FMOODS '97), sponsored by the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) held in Canterbury, United Kingdom, in July 1997.

Originally published in 2002, this book presents techniques in the application of formal methods to object-based distributed systems. A major theme of the book is how to formally handle the requirements arising from OO distributed systems, such as dynamic reconfiguration, encapsulation, subtyping, inheritance, and real-time aspects. These may be supported either by enhancing existing notations, such as UML, LOTOS, SDL and Z, or by defining fresh notations, such as Actors, Pi-calculus and Ambients. The major specification notations and modelling techniques are introduced and compared by leading researchers. The book also includes a description of approaches to the specification of non-functional requirements, and a discussion of security issues. Researchers and practitioners in software design, object-oriented computing, distributed systems, and telecommunications systems will gain an appreciation of the relationships between the major areas of concerns and learn how the use of object-oriented based formal methods provides workable solutions.

Originally published in 2002, this book presents techniques in the application of formal methods to object-based distributed systems. A major theme of the book is how to formally handle the requirements arising from OO distributed systems, such as dynamic reconfiguration, encapsulation, subtyping, inheritance, and real-time aspects. These may be supported either by enhancing existing notations, such as UML, LOTOS, SDL and Z, or by defining fresh notations, such as Actors, Pi-calculus and Ambients. The major specification notations and modelling techniques are introduced and compared by leading researchers. The book also includes a description of approaches to the specification of non-functional requirements, and a discussion of security issues. Researchers and practitioners in software design, object-oriented computing, distributed systems, and telecommunications systems will gain an appreciation of the relationships between the major areas of concerns and learn how the use of object-oriented based formal methods provides workable solutions.

The book presents an extensive introduction to LOTOS highlighting how the approach differs from competitor techniques such as CCS and CSP. The notation is illustrated by a number of running examples and by using the LOTOS process calculus a spectrum of semantic models for concurrent systems are reviewed. Specifically, linear-time semantics; based on traces; branching-time semantics; using both labelled transition systems and refusals, are used to highlight true concurrency semantics using event structures. In addition to this a simple timed extension to LOTOS is introduced using running examples, allowing consideration of how the untimed semantic models -- traces, labelled transition systems, refusals and event structures -- can be generalised to the timed setting. The authors also generalise the simple communicating automata notation to yield timed automata with multi-way synchronisation using model-checking verification methods and new techniques to prevent time-locks from arising.

Intheworldweliveinconcurrencyisthenorm.Forexample,thehumanbody isamassivelyconcurrentsystem,comprisingahugenumberofcells,allsim- taneously evolving and independently engaging in their individual biological processing.Inaddition,inthebiologicalworld,trulysequentialsystemsrarely arise. However, they are more common when manmade artefacts are cons- ered. In particular, computer systems are often developed from a sequential perspective. Why is this? The simple reason is that it is easier for us to think about sequential, rather than concurrent, systems. Thus, we use sequentiality as a device to simplify the design process. However, the need for increasingly powerful, ?exible and usable computer systems mitigates against simplifying sequentiality assumptions. A good - ample of this is the all-powerful position held by the Internet, which is highly concurrent at many di?erent levels of decomposition. Thus, the modern c- puter scientist (and indeed the modern scientist in general) is forced to think aboutconcurrentsystemsandthesubtleandintricatebehaviourthatemerges from the interaction of simultaneously evolving components. Over a period of 25 years, or so, the ?eld of concurrency theory has been involved in the development of a set of mathematical techniques that can help system developers to think about and build concurrent systems. These theories are the subject matter of this book.