Net models for concurrent object behaviour

Abstract

The behaviour of an object allocated and used by a computer program consists of a set of events involving the object which occur in and around a computer during execution of the program. Object behaviour can be modelled by an occurrence net (a Petri net without places), in which each event is a transition (drawn as a box), and the arrows between the transitions represent dependency between the events. The total behaviour of the program is just the sum of the behaviours of the objects which it allocates. A program (perhaps expressed as a Petri net with places) is mathematically defined as just the set of all its possible behaviours, in all its possible environments of execution. An object class is similarly defined as the set of all the possible behaviours of all its possible objects, as used in any possible program. © 2012 Springer-Verlag.