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The Laws of Programming Unify Process Calculi

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Mathematics of Program Construction (MPC 2012)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNTCS,volume 7342))

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Abstract

We survey the well-known algebraic laws of sequential programming, and propose some less familiar laws for concurrent programming. On the basis of these laws, we derive the rules of a number of classical programming and process calculi, for example, those due to Hoare, Milner, and Kahn. The algebra is simpler than each of the calculi derived from it, and stronger than all the calculi put together. We end with a section describing the role of unification in Science and Engineering.

This paper is dedicated in friendship and admiration to the memory of Robin Milner and Gilles Kahn.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Microsoft Research, Cambridge, United Kingdom

    Tony Hoare

  2. ETH Zurich, Switzerland

    Stephan van Staden

Authors
  1. Tony Hoare
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  2. Stephan van Staden
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, Oxford University, Wolfson Building, Parks Road, OX1 3QD, Oxford, UK

    Jeremy Gibbons

  2. Facultad de Informática, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Campus de Montegancedo s/n, 28660, Boadilla del Monte, Madrid, Spain

    Pablo Nogueira

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Hoare, T., van Staden, S. (2012). The Laws of Programming Unify Process Calculi. In: Gibbons, J., Nogueira, P. (eds) Mathematics of Program Construction. MPC 2012. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 7342. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-31113-0_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-31113-0_2

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-31112-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-31113-0

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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