A Metamodel for Concurrent, Object-based Programming

The development of flexible and reusable concurrent object-oriented programming abstractions has suffered from the inherent problem that reusability and extensibility is limited due to position-dependent parameters. To tackle this problem, we propose the Form-calculus, an inherently polymorphic variant of the Pi-calculus, where polyadic tuple communication is replaced by monadic communication of extensible records. This approach facilitates the specification of flexible, concurrent, object-oriented programming abstractions. Based on our previous work in this field, we present a Form-calculus based meta-level approach for concurrent, object-based programming which adapts a compositional view of programming. This approach enables the definition of various semantic models supporting different kinds of inheritance and method dispatch strategies, and clarifies concepts which are typically merged in existing object-oriented programming languages.