Citation
Edward A. Lee. "Concurrent Semantics without the Notions of State or State Transitions". Formal Modeling and Analysis of Timed Systems, 4th International Conference, FORMATS 2006, Paris, France, LCNS 4202, Asarin, Eugene; Bouyer, Patricia (eds.), 18-31, September, 2006.

Abstract
This paper argues that basing the semantics of concurrent systems on the notions of state and state transitions is neither advisable nor necessary. The tendency to do this is deeply rooted in our notions of computation, but these roots have proved problematic in concurrent software in general, where they have led to such poor programming practice as threads. I review approaches (some of which have been around for some time) to the semantics of concurrent programs that rely on neither state nor state transitions. Specifically, these approaches rely on a broadened notion of computation consisting of interacting components. The semantics of a concurrent compositions of such components generally reduces to a fixed point problem. Two families of fixed point problems have emerged, one based on metric spaces and their generalizations, and the other based on domain theories. The purpose of this paper is to argue for these approaches over those based on transition systems, which require the notion of state.

Electronic downloads

• http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/11867340_2
• http://ptolemy.eecs.berkeley.edu/publications/papers/06/concurrentsemantics/
• Formats_ConcurrentSemantics-1.pdf · application/pdf · 800 kbytes
• Formats_ConcurrentSemantics.ppt · application/vnd.ms-powerpoint · 3247 kbytes

• HTML

  Edward A. Lee. <a
  href="http://chess.eecs.berkeley.edu/pubs/330.html"
  >Concurrent Semantics without the Notions of State or
  State Transitions</a>, Formal Modeling and Analysis of
  Timed Systems, 4th International Conference, FORMATS 2006,
  Paris, France, LCNS 4202, Asarin, Eugene; Bouyer, Patricia
  (eds.), 18-31, September, 2006.

• Plain text

  Edward A. Lee. "Concurrent Semantics without the
  Notions of State or State Transitions". Formal Modeling
  and Analysis of Timed Systems, 4th International Conference,
  FORMATS 2006, Paris, France, LCNS 4202, Asarin, Eugene;
  Bouyer, Patricia (eds.), 18-31, September, 2006.

• BibTeX

  @inproceedings{Lee06_ConcurrentSemanticsWithoutNotionsOfStateOrStateTransitions,
      author = {Edward A. Lee},
      title = {Concurrent Semantics without the Notions of State
                or State Transitions},
      booktitle = {Formal Modeling and Analysis of Timed Systems, 4th
                International Conference, FORMATS 2006, Paris,
                France, LCNS 4202},
      editor = {Asarin, Eugene; Bouyer, Patricia},
      pages = {18-31},
      month = {September},
      year = {2006},
      abstract = {This paper argues that basing the semantics of
                concurrent systems on the notions of state and
                state transitions is neither advisable nor
                necessary. The tendency to do this is deeply
                rooted in our notions of computation, but these
                roots have proved problematic in concurrent
                software in general, where they have led to such
                poor programming practice as threads. I review
                approaches (some of which have been around for
                some time) to the semantics of concurrent programs
                that rely on neither state nor state transitions.
                Specifically, these approaches rely on a broadened
                notion of computation consisting of interacting
                components. The semantics of a concurrent
                compositions of such components generally reduces
                to a fixed point problem. Two families of fixed
                point problems have emerged, one based on metric
                spaces and their generalizations, and the other
                based on domain theories. The purpose of this
                paper is to argue for these approaches over those
                based on transition systems, which require the
                notion of state.},
      URL = {http://chess.eecs.berkeley.edu/pubs/330.html}
  }
  

Posted by Christopher Brooks on 7 Jun 2007.
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