Within the context of an algebraic theory of processes, an equational specification of process cooperation is provided. Four cases are considered: free merge or interleaving, merging with communication, merging with mutual exclusion of tight regions, and synchronous process cooperation. The rewrite system behind the communication algebra is shown to be confluent and terminating (modulo its permutative reductions). Further, some relationships are shown to hold between the four concepts of merging. © 1984 Academic Press, Inc.

The mathematical framework of Stone duality is used to synthesize a number of hitherto separate developments in Theoretical Computer Science: • Domain Theory, the mathematical theory of computation introduced by Scott as a foundation for denotational semantics. • The theory of concurrency and systems behaviour developed by Milner, Hennessy et al. based on operational semantics. • Logics of programs. Stone duality provides a junction between semantics (spaces of points = denotations of computational processes) and logics (lattices of properties of processes). Moreover, the underlying logic is geometric, which can be computationally interpreted as the logic of observable properties—i.e. properties which can be determined to hold of a process on the basis of a finite amount of information about its execution. These ideas lead to the following programme:

this paper various semantics in the linear time -- branching time spectrum are presented in a uniform, model-independent way. Restricted to the class of finitely branching, concrete, sequential processes, only fifteen of them turn out to be different, and most semantics found in the literature that can be defined uniformly in terms of action relations coincide with one of these fifteen. Several testing scenarios, motivating these semantics, are presented, phrased in terms of `button pushing experiments' on generative and reactive machines. Finally twelve of these semantics are applied to a simple language for finite, concrete, sequential, nondeterministic processes, and for each of them a complete axiomatization is provided.

The aim of this paper is to relate initial algebra semantics and final coalgebra semantics. It is shown how these two approaches to the semantics of programming languages are each others dual, and some conditions are given under which they coincide. More precisely, it is shown how to derive initial semantics from final semantics, using the initiality and finality to ensure their equality. Moreover, many facts about congruences (on algebras) and (generalized) bisimulations (on coalgebras) are shown to be dual as well.

Canonical solutions of domain equations are shown to be final coalgebras, not only in a category of non-standard sets (as already known), but also in categories of metric spaces and partial orders. Coalgebras are simple categorical structures generalizing the notion of post-fixed point. They are also used here for giving a new comprehensive presentation of the (still) non-standard theory of non-well-founded sets (as non-standard sets are usually called). This paper is meant to provide a basis to a more general project aiming at a full exploitation of the finality of the domains in the semantics of programming languages --- concurrent ones among them. Such a final semantics enjoys uniformity and generality. For instance, semantic observational equivalences like bisimulation can be derived as instances of a single `coalgebraic' definition (introduced elsewhere), which is parametric of the functor appearing in the domain equation. Some properties of this general form of equivalence are also studied in this paper.

Abstract. This note addresses the history of process algebra as an area of research in concurrency theory, the theory of parallel and distributed systems in computer science. Origins are traced back to the early seventies of the twentieth century, and developments since that time are sketched. The author gives his personal views on these matters. He also considers the present situation, and states some challenges for the future.

. We can use a metric to measure the di#erences between elements in a domain or subsets of that domain #i.e. concepts#. Which particular metric should be chosen, depends on the kind of di#erence wewant to measure. The well known Euclidean metric on # n and its generalizations are often used for this purpose, but such metrics are not always suitable for concepts where elements have some structure di#erent from real numbers. For example, in #Inductive# Logic Programming a concept is often expressed as an Herbrand interpretation of some #rstorder language. Every element in an Herbrand interpretation is a ground atom which has a tree structure. We start by de#ning a metric d on the set of expressions #ground atoms and ground terms#, motivated by the structure and complexity of the expressions and the symbols used therein. This metric induces the Hausdor # metric h on the set of all sets of ground atoms, which allows us to measure the distance between Herbrand interpretatio...

This paper combines and extends the material of [GG-a/c/d/e], except for the part in [GG-c] on refinement of transitions in Petri nets and the discussion of TCSP-like parallel composition in [GG-e]. An informal presentation of some basic ingredients of this paper appeared as [GG-b]. Among others, the treatment of action refinement in stable and non-stable event structures is new. The research reported here was supported by Esprit project 432 (METEOR), Esprit Basic Research Action 3148 (DEMON), Sonderforschungsbereich 342 of the TU Munchen, ONR grant N00014-92-J-1974 and the Human Capital and Mobility Cooperation Network EXPRESS (Expressiveness of Languages for Concurrency). Contents

It is a great pleasure to contribute this paper to a birthday volume for Dov. Dov and I arrived at imperial College at around the same time, and soon he, Tom Maibaum and I were embarked on a joint project, the Handbook of Logic in Computer Science. We obtained a generous advance from Oxford University Press, and a grant from the Alvey Programme, which allowed us to develop the Handbook in a rather unique, interactive way. We held regular meetings at Cosener’s House in Abingdon (a facility run by what was then the U.K. Science and Engineering Research Council), at which contributors would present their ideas and draft material for their chapters for discussion and criticism. Ideas for new chapters and the balance of the volumes were also discussed. Those were a remarkable series of meetings — a veritable education in themselves. I must confess that during this long process, I did occasionally wonder if it would ever terminate.... But the record shows that five handsome volumes were produced [6]. Moreover, I believe that the Handbook has proved to be a really valuable resource for students and researchers. It has been used as the basis for a number of summer schools. Many of the chapters have become standard references for their topics. In a field with rapidly changing fashions, most of the material has stood the test of time — thus

Both pre-orders and metric spaces have been used at various times as a foundation for the solution of recursive domain equations in the area of denotational semantics. In both cases the central theorem states that a `converging' sequence of `complete' domains/spaces with `continuous' retraction pairs between them has a limit in the category of complete domains/spaces with retraction pairs as morphisms. The pre-order version was discovered first by Scott in 1969, and is referred to as Scott's inverse limit theorem. The metric version was mainly developed by de Bakker and Zucker and refined and generalized by America and Rutten. The theorem in both its versions provides the main tool for solving recursive domain equations. The proofs of the two versions of the theorem look astonishingly similar, but until now the preconditions for the pre-order and the metric versions have seemed to be fundamentally different. In this thesis we establish a more general theory of domains based on the noti...