Join-calculus
4522212
184869079
2008-01-17T00:53:22Z
Andreas Toth
1846145
The '''join-calculus''' is a [[process calculus]] developed at [[INRIA]]. The join-calculus was developed to provide a formal basis for the design of distributed programming languages, and therefore intentionally avoids communications constructs found in other process calculi, such as [[synchronous rendezvous|rendezvous]] communications, which are difficult to implement in a distributed setting<ref>{{cite paper | author=Cedric Fournet, Georges Gonthier | title=The reflexive CHAM and the join-calculus | date = 1995 | url=http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/fournet95reflexive.html}}, pg. 1</ref>. Despite this limitation, the join-calculus is equally as expressive as the full [[Pi-calculus|<math>\pi</math>-calculus]]. Encodings of the <math>\pi</math>-calculus in the join-calculus, and vice-versa, have been demonstrated<ref>{{cite paper | author=Cedric Fournet, Georges Gonthier | title=The reflexive CHAM and the join-calculus | date = 1995 | url=http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/fournet95reflexive.html}}, pg. 2</ref>.
The join-calculus is a member of the [[Pi-calculus|<math>\pi</math>-calculus]] family of process calculi, and can be considered, at its core, an asynchronous <math>\pi</math>-calculus with several strong restrictions<ref>{{cite paper | author=Cedric Fournet, Georges Gonthier | title=The reflexive CHAM and the join-calculus | date = 1995 | url=http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/fournet95reflexive.html}}, pg. 19</ref>:
*Scope restriction, reception, and replicated reception are syntactically merged into a single construct, the ''definition'';
*Communication occurs only on defined names;
*For every defined name there is exactly one replicated reception.
However, as a language for programming, the join-calculus offers at least one convenience over the <math>\pi</math>-calculus — namely the use of ''multi-way join patterns'', the ability to match against messages from multiple channels simultaneously.
==Languages based on the join-calculus==
The [[join-calculus programming language]] is based on the join-calculus process calculus. It is implemented as an interpreter written in [[OCaml]], and supports statically typed distributed programming, transparent remote communication, agent-based mobility, and failure-detection<ref>{{cite paper | author=Cedric Fournet, Georges Gonthier | title=The Join Calculus: A Language for Distributed Mobile Programming | date = 2000 | url=http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/670457.html}}</ref>.
[[JoCaml]] is a version of [[OCaml]] extended with join-calculus primitives.
[[Polyphonic C sharp|Polyphonic C#]] and its successor [[Cω]] extend [[C Sharp (programming language)|C#]].
MC# extends Polyphonic C# and also devoted to .NET.
[[Join Java]] extends [[Java (programming language)|Java]].
The [http://channel.sourceforge.net/ Boost.Join] library is an implementation in C++.
==References==
<references/>
==External links==
* INRIA, [http://moscova.inria.fr/join/index.shtml Join Calculus homepage]
[[Category:Process calculi]]