Behavioural Specifications
Abstract
For historic reasons, programming (and its theory, as well as methodology) evolved from the computing paradigm. Many computer applications in common use do not fit this paradigm well. Neither an operating system, nor a word processor compute anything, even if their operation involves many computations. Here we follow another paradigm, viz. that of system behavior, in which finite actions are undertaken and accepted in specific circumstances. In this approach there is no notion of action sequencing, therefore we avoid all problems of synchronization and global time. Instead, we recognize that action executions are not instantaneous and-therefore-the circumstances under which a particular action was deemed desirable may have changed during an execution to ones under which its outcome is no more needed. (Establishing a telephone connection in a modern network is an action that certainty takes some time during which the caller may decide to hang up; should this be the case, the laboriously established connection may safely be dissolved.) The chosen paradigm accommodates an arbitrary degree of parallelism in the sense that an unspecified number of actions may be executed concurrently and-as far as the execution processes are concerned-independently.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 1995
- Accession Number
- ADA360200
Entities
People
- Wladyslaw M. Turski
Organizations
- University of Warsaw