A CCS semantics for NIL
Scott A. Smolka, Rob Strom · IBM Journal of Research and Development · 1987
We present a syntax-directed translation of NIL, a high-level language for distributed systems programming, into CCS, Milner's Calculus of Communicating Systems. This translation presents unique problems because of NIL's highly dynamic nature, and makes full use of CCS's descriptive facilities. In particular, we consider NIL constructs for dynamic creation and deletion of processes and communication channels, queued synchronous and asynchronous message passing, nondeterministic message selection, and exception handling. A NIL implementation of a simple command shell is used to illustrate the translation procedure. We discuss various issues and open problems concerning the suitability of CCS as an abstract semantics for NIL.