Viewing Objects as Patterns of Communicating Agents：（查看对象作为通信代理的模式）.pdfVIP

Viewing Objects as Patterns of Communicating Agents1 Oscar Nierstrasz Michael Papathomas Université de Genève Centre Universitaire d’Informatique 12 rue du Lac, CH-1207 Geneva, Switzerland E-mail: {oscar,michael}@cui.unige.ch, oscar@cgeuge51.bitnet Tel: +41 (22) 787.65.80, Fax: +41 (22) 735.39.05 Abstract Following our own experience developing a concurrent object-oriented language as well of that of other researchers, we have identified several key problems in the design of a concurrency mod- el compatible with the mechanisms of object-oriented programming. We propose an approach to language design in which an executable notation describing the behaviour of communicating agents is extended by syntactic patterns that encapsulate language constructs. We indicate how various language models can be accommodated, and how mechanisms such as inheritance can be modeled. Finally, we introduce a new notion of types that characterizes concurrent objects in terms of their externally visible behaviour. 1. Introduction The message-passing model of communication in object-oriented languages appears to naturally support concurrent execution of autonomous objects. This fact has led many researchers to try to exploit this autonomy in developing concurrent object-oriented languages [2], [15], [17], [22], [23], [30], [32]. Various forms of active, message-passing objects, and passive, lockable objects have been proposed and implemented. Unfortunately none of these approaches has yet succeed- ed in resolving ba