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Theory and Practice in Distributed Systems pp 133–152Cite as

Modelling darwin in the π-calculus

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Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 938))

Abstract

Darwin is a general purpose structuring tool of use in building complex distributed systems from diverse components and diverse component interaction mechanisms. It is in essence a declarative binding language which can be used to define hierarchic compositions of interconnected components. Distribution is dealt with orthogonally to system structuring. The language allows the specification of both static structures and dynamic structures which evolve during execution. The central abstractions managed by Darwin are components and services. Bindings are formed by manipulating references to services.

The paper describes the operational semantics of Darwin in terms of the π-calculus, Milner's calculus of mobile processes. The correspondence between the treatment of names in the π-calculus and the management of service references in Darwin leads to an elegant and concise π-calculus model of Darwin's operational semantics. The model has proved useful in arguing the correctness of Darwin implementations and in designing extensions to Darwin and reasoning about their behaviour. The paper discusses the reasons why other formalisms fail to capture elegantly the system structuring concepts on which Darwin is based.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computing, Imperial College, SW7 2BZ, London, UK

    Jeff Magee, Susan Eisenbach & Jeff Kramer

Authors
  1. Jeff Magee
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  2. Susan Eisenbach
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  3. Jeff Kramer
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Editor information

Kenneth P. Birman Friedemann Mattern André Schiper

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© 1995 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Magee, J., Eisenbach, S., Kramer, J. (1995). Modelling darwin in the π-calculus. In: Birman, K.P., Mattern, F., Schiper, A. (eds) Theory and Practice in Distributed Systems. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 938. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-60042-6_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-60042-6_10

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-60042-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-49409-6

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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