Paper Info
Title
A Chart Semantics for the Pi-Calculus
Abstract
We present a graphical semantics for the pi-calculus, that is easier to visualize and better suited to expressing causality and temporal properties than conventional relational semantics. A pi-chart is a finite directed acyclic graph recording a computation in the pi-calculus. Each node represents a process, and each edge either represents a computation step, or a message-passing interaction. Pi-charts enjoy a natural pictorial representation, akin to message sequence charts, in which vertical edges represent control flow and horizontal edges represent data flow based on message passing. A pi-chart represents a single computation starting from its top (the nodes with no ancestors) to its bottom (the nodes with no descendants). Unlike conventional reductions or transitions, the edges in a pi-chart induce ancestry and other causal relations on processes. We give both compositional and operational definitions of pi-charts, and illustrate the additional expressivity afforded by the chart semantics via a series of examples.
Year
DOI
Venue
2008
10.1016/j.entcs.2007.11.002
Electr. Notes Theor. Comput. Sci.
Keywords
Field
DocType
single computation,computation step,pi-calculus,causality,message sequence charts.,message passing,control flow,conventional reduction,acyclic graph,chart semantics,message sequence chart,graphical semantics,message sequence charts,conventional relational semantics,computer science,directed acyclic graph,pi calculus,data flow
Discrete mathematics,Kripke semantics,Computer science,Control flow,Algorithm,Theoretical computer science,Directed acyclic graph,Chart,Message passing,Semantics,Data flow diagram,Computation
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
194
2
Electronic Notes in Theoretical Computer Science
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
2
0.40
26
Authors
4
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Johannes Borgström117412.29
Andrew Gordon23713268.70
Andrew Phillips322717.50
john k borchardt420.40