TY - JOUR
T1 - Angelic Processes for CSP via the UTP
AU - De Oliveira Salazar Ribeiro, Pedro Fernando
AU - Cavalcanti, Ana Lucia Caneca
N1 - This is an author-produced version of the published paper. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher’s self-archiving policy.
PY - 2018/10/15
Y1 - 2018/10/15
N2 - Demonic and angelic nondeterminism play fundamental roles as abstraction mechanisms for formal modelling. In contrast with its demonic counterpart, in an angelic choice failure is avoided whenever possible. Although it has been extensively studied in refinement calculi, in the context of process algebras, and of the Communicating Sequential Processes (CSP) algebra for refinement, in particular, it has been elusive. We show here that a semantics for an extended version of CSP that includes both demonic and angelic choice can be provided using Hoare and He's Unifying Theories of Programming (UTP). Since CSP is given semantics in the UTP via reactive designs (pre and postcondition pairs) we have developed a theory of angelic designs and a conservative extension of the CSP theory using reactive angelic designs. To characterise angelic nondeterminism appropriately in an algebra of processes, however, a notion of divergence that can undo the history of events needs to be considered. Taking this view, we present a model for CSP where angelic choice completely avoids divergence just like in the refinement calculi for sequential programs.
AB - Demonic and angelic nondeterminism play fundamental roles as abstraction mechanisms for formal modelling. In contrast with its demonic counterpart, in an angelic choice failure is avoided whenever possible. Although it has been extensively studied in refinement calculi, in the context of process algebras, and of the Communicating Sequential Processes (CSP) algebra for refinement, in particular, it has been elusive. We show here that a semantics for an extended version of CSP that includes both demonic and angelic choice can be provided using Hoare and He's Unifying Theories of Programming (UTP). Since CSP is given semantics in the UTP via reactive designs (pre and postcondition pairs) we have developed a theory of angelic designs and a conservative extension of the CSP theory using reactive angelic designs. To characterise angelic nondeterminism appropriately in an algebra of processes, however, a notion of divergence that can undo the history of events needs to be considered. Taking this view, we present a model for CSP where angelic choice completely avoids divergence just like in the refinement calculi for sequential programs.
U2 - 10.1016/j.tcs.2018.10.008
DO - 10.1016/j.tcs.2018.10.008
M3 - Article
SN - 0304-3975
JO - Theoretical Computer Science
JF - Theoretical Computer Science
ER -