Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies du numérique (INRIA)
Abstract
Isolating computation and coordination concerns into separate pure computation and pure coordination
enhances modularity, understandability and reusability of parallel and/or distributed software. This can
be achieved by moving interaction primitives, which are now commonly scattered in programs, into separate
modules written in a language aimed at coordinating objects and expressing how information flows
among them. The usual model for coordination is the client/server model, but it is not adequate when
several objects need to collaborate simultaneously in order to solve a problem because natural multiparty
interactions need to be decomposed into a set of low–level, binary interactions.
In this paper, we introduce CAL, an IP–based language for the description of the coordination aspect of
a system. We show that it can be successfully described in terms of simple multiparty interactions that can
be animated and are also amenable to formal reasoning.Comisión Interministerial de Ciencia y Tecnología (CICYT) MENHIR TIC 97–0593–C05–0