FAQ on Pi-Calculus [pdf]

cs.cmu.edu

13 points·skorks··5 comments

That is interesting - particularly the comment that you can express lambda calculus in pi-calculus but not (as I read it) the other way round.

Is anyone trying to build a "real world" programming language that is strictly defined in terms of pi-calculus? Given the emphasis in pi-calculus on communication and transportability of channels themselves that might work out a better basis for a real programming language than lambda calculus seems to have been for functional languages (or predicate calculus for logical languages, which don't seem very popular these days).

Benjamin Pierce's pict is the main one I'm aware of, but I think it was more an exercise than anything else (in practice if not intention): http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~bcpierce/papers/pict/Html/Pict.htm...

The FAQ does list several languages based on the pi-calculus.

My favourite is Mozart/Oz (http://www.mozart-oz.org) - it is based on the pi-calculus (using dataflow variables for channels) and also encodes the lambda-calculus. A wonderful concurrent functional programming language is the result (leaving aside its distributed and constraint capabilities, which build on the pi & lambda calculi base).

Right, that's the first reference I've seen of Oz being based on the pi-calculus! I'll have to have a closer look; Mozart/Oz has been on my list for a while now, but has slipped down the pile a bit.

This is very interesting. Has anyone seen any models of HTTP in pi-calculus? A quick search didn't turn anything up, but then http is a tainted keyword.

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