G. Stefanescu.
Interactive systems with registers and voices.
Draft, July 2004.
Abstract
We present a model, a core programming language,
specification and analysis techniques appropriate for
modeling, programming and reasoning about interactive
computing systems.
The model consists of {\em rv-systems} ({\em interactive
systems with registers and voices}); it includes register
machines, is space-time invariant, is compositional, may
describe computations extending in both time and space, and
is applicable to open, interactive systems. To achieve
modularity in space the model uses {\em voices} (a voice is
the time dual of a register) - they provide a high level
organization of temporal data and are used to describe
interaction interfaces of processes.
The programming language uses novel techniques for syntax
and semantics to support computation in space paradigm. We
describe {\em rv-programs} and base their syntax and
operational semantics on \fis s ({\em finite interactive
systems}) and their grid languages (a \fis\ is a kind of
2-dimensional automaton specifying both control and
interaction used in rv-programs).
The specification of rv-systems uses relations between input
registers and voices and their output counterparts. The
paper describes simple specifications for an OO-system and
for an interactive game. The analysis techniques developed
for rv-programs use finite automata, \fis s, and an
intermediary class of decomposable \fis s.
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