A language based on the Pi-calculus

The exponential increase in the volume and sensitivity of data transmitted over electronic media has resulted in a corresponding increase in attempts to secure these inherently insecure transmissions. Numerous networking protocols and associated mechanisms have been used but implementing distributed systems is a notoriously error prone exercise. Attempts to ensure the relevant properties are present in distributed systems can be made by the application of formal methods. However this application of formal methods is made to the specification of a distributed system, not its actual implementation. Typically, a wide gulf exists between the specification of a distributed system and its actual implementation, and this gulf can result in the introduction of potentially devastating errors. A method of bridging this gulf is required in order that the application of formal methods to distributed systems can become more widespread and more accessible. We propose a general purpose programming language that is based on one of the more popular formal notations used to specify distributed systems, the 7r-calculus With this approach we allow the integration of complex sequential computations into 7r-calculus specifications of distributed systems to produce systems that are capable of execution in a distributed and concurrent fashion. The implementation of this proposal is facilitated by designing the language such that fragments of Java code can be integrated into a 7r-calculus framework