Term graph rewriting as a specification and implementation framework for concurrent object-oriented programming languages

Abstract

The usefulness of the generalised computational model of Term Graph Rewriting Systems (TGRS) for designing and implementing concurrent object-oriented languages, and also for specifying and reasoning about the interaction between concurrency and object-orientation (such as concurrent synchronisation of methods or interference problems between concurrency and inheritance), is examined in this paper by mapping a state-of-the-art functional object-oriented language onto the MONSTR computational model, a restricted form of TGRS specifically designed to act as a point of reference in the design and implementation of declarative and semi-declarative programming languages especially suited for distributed architectures.