Skip to main content

Graph grammars as context-dependent rewriting systems: A partial ordering semantics

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
CAAP '92 (CAAP 1992)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 581))

Included in the following conference series:

Abstract

Context-dependent rewriting systems allow a higher degree of concurrency w.r.t. context-independent ones, since rewriting rules which apply in intersecting contexts and rewrite different items may be applied concurrently, while this cannot happen with a context-independent specification of the same rules. Context-dependent systems can also be seen as a natural generalization of read/write systems, where several readers of the same items may proceed in parallel. However, all the partial ordering semantics which have been given in the past apply, as far as we know, to context-independent systems. In this paper, instead, we investigate the possibility of giving a partial ordering semantics to graph grammars, which can be seen as elegant and general context-dependent rewriting systems. We accomplish that by associating a deterministic occurrence Petri net to each graph derivation. From such a net, then, a partial ordering relating the applied productions, and expressing the causal dependencies among them, can be obtained. The set of all such partial orderings is then the semantics of the given grammar. We also compare our approach with the classical one for concurrency in graph grammars, and we show that, given a derivation, they generate the same dependencies, although our approach is more abstract than the classical one.

Research partially supported by the GRAGRA Basic Research Esprit Working Group n.3299 and by Alenia S.p.A.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. de Bakker J., de Roever W., Rozenberg G., eds., Linear time, branching time and partial orders in logics and models for concurrency, LNCS 354, Springer 1989.

    Google Scholar 

  2. Degano P., De Nicola R., Montanari U., “A Partial Ordering Semantics for CCS”, on TCS 75, pp. 223–262, 1990.

    Google Scholar 

  3. Degano P., Montanari U., “A Model for Distributed Systems Based on Graph Rewritings”, on Journal of ACM, Vol.34, n.2, 1987.

    Google Scholar 

  4. Ehrig H., “Introduction to the Algebraic Theory of Graph Grammars”, on Proc. International Workshop on Graph Grammars, Springer Verlag, LNCS 73, 1978.

    Google Scholar 

  5. Guessarian I., ed., Semantics of Concurrent Processes, Springer 1990, LNCS 469.

    Google Scholar 

  6. Habel A., “Hyperedge Replacement: Grammars and Languages”, Ph.D. thesis, University of Bremen, 1989.

    Google Scholar 

  7. Hoare C.A.R., “Communicating Sequential Processes”, Prentice Hall, 1985.

    Google Scholar 

  8. Mac Lane S., “Categories for the Working Mathematician”, Springer Verlag, 1971.

    Google Scholar 

  9. Milner R., “Communication and Concurrency”, Prentice Hall, 1989.

    Google Scholar 

  10. Montanari U., Rossi F., “True Concurrency in Concurrent Constraint Programming”, on Proc. ILPS91, MIT Press, 1991.

    Google Scholar 

  11. Montanari U., Rossi F., “Graph Rewriting for a Partial Ordering Semantics of Concurrent Constraint Programming”, will appear on Teorethical Computer Science, special issue on graph grammars, Courcelle B. and Rozenberg eds.

    Google Scholar 

  12. Peled D., Pnueli A., “Proving Partial Order Liveness Properties”, on Proc. ICALP90, Springer-Verlag, LNCS 443, 1990.

    Google Scholar 

  13. Plotkin G., “A structural Approach to Operational Semantics”, TR DAIMI FN-19, Aarhus University, CS Department, 1981.

    Google Scholar 

  14. Reisig W., “Petri Nets: An Introduction”, EATCS Monographs on Theoretical Computer Science, Springer Verlag, 1985.

    Google Scholar 

  15. Saraswat V. A., “Concurrent Constraint Programming Languages”, Ph.D. Thesis, Carnegie-Mellon University, 1989. Also 1989 ACM Dissertation Award, MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  16. Winskel G., “Event Structures”, on Petri nets: applications and relationships to other models of concurrency, Springer-Verlag, LNCS 255.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

J. -C. Raoult

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 1992 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this paper

Cite this paper

Montanari, U., Rossi, F. (1992). Graph grammars as context-dependent rewriting systems: A partial ordering semantics. In: Raoult, J.C. (eds) CAAP '92. CAAP 1992. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 581. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-55251-0_13

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-55251-0_13

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-55251-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-46799-1

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

Publish with us

Policies and ethics