@article{borgstrm2008a,
author = {Borgström, Johannes and Gordon, Andy and Phillips, Andrew},
title = {A Chart Semantics for the Pi-calculus},
year = {2008},
month = {January},
abstract = {We present a graphical semantics for the pi-calculus, that is easier to visualize and better suited to expressing causality and temporal properties than conventional relational semantics. A pi-chart is a finite directed acyclic graph recording a computation in the pi-calculus. Each node represents a process, and each edge either represents a computation step, or a message-passing interaction. Pi-charts enjoy a natural pictorial representation, akin to message sequence charts, in which vertical edges represent control flow and horizontal edges represent data flow based on message passing. A pi-chart represents a single computation starting from its top (the nodes with no ancestors) to its bottom (the nodes with no descendants). Unlike conventional reductions or transitions, the edges in a pi-chart induce ancestry and other causal relations on processes. We give both compositional and operational definitions of pi-charts, and illustrate the additional expressivity afforded by the chart semantics via a series of examples.},
publisher = {Elsevier},
url = {http://approjects.co.za/?big=en-us/research/publication/a-chart-semantics-for-the-pi-calculus/},
pages = {3-29},
journal = {Electronic Notes in Theoretical Computer Science},
volume = {194},
chapter = {2},
}