| Process algebras, such as the pi-calculus, can be used to provide formal models of the communication occurring in concurrent systems. The pi-calculus provides a good starting point for modeling object-oriented systems. In the pi-calculus all communication occurs along channels. We can think of an object as a process with a set of channels representing the methods. However, the pi-calculus allows some un-object-like behavior. For example, it allows messages destined for one object to be intercepted by another object. We introduce OOpi, a modified version of the pi-calculus which more accurately reflects the object-oriented style of communication.; We then present a translation of a parallel object-oriented language, POOL, into OOpi. We describe notions of equivalence for both POOL and OOpi based on testing. Testing equivalence compares two processes based on their behavior in response to tests. Using this notion of equivalence, we will outline a full abstraction result for the translation; that is, two POOL processes are testing equivalent if and only if their translations are testing equivalent. The existence of the fully abstract translation means that OOpi and POOL have the same observational power on terms of the POOL language. |
