Specifying and Inheriting Concurrent Behavior in an Actor-BasedObject-Oriented Language

Using CCS behavior equations to specify and reason about the observable behavior of concurrent objects, we demonstrate that a language mechanism called a behavior set can be used to capture the behavior of actor-like objects. Using behavior equations as a formal representation of concurrent object behavior results in the explication of a mapping from the domain of objects to a domain of behavior sets. We call this mapping the behavior function. By expressing relevant object states, behavior sets and the behavior function as first-class, inheritable, and mutable entities in a concurrent object-oriented language, we have defined the conditions which must be met in order to inherit concurrent behavior free of known anomalies.