Petri Nets, Process Algebras and Concurrent Programming Languages

This paper discusses issues that arise when process algebras and Petri nets are linked; in particular, operators, compositionality, recursion, refinement and equivalences. It uses the box algebra in order to show how Petri nets can be manipulated algebraically. Also, the paper shows how other process algebras such as CCS, COSY and CSP can be treated in the same way, how Petri net semantics of concurrent programming languages can be given, and how Petri net methods can be applied to the verification of concurrent algorithms. 1 Introduction One of the main aims of the Petri net theory is to model concurrent systems and to allow to reason about them formally. The question of realising such systems is not primarily addressed, although it is clearly desirable that a system modelled by a net should also be realisable. One of the main aims of concurrent programming languages is to express parallel programs and distributed algorithms, and thus to construct concurrent systems. The question of ..