In: Internal report, Department of Computer Science, KULeuven, Belgium, pages 1-20. 1994.
Abstract: Concurrent object-oriented programming raises a number of new aspects for objects that are subject to multiple concurrent invocation, and which can be active at the same time. Specifying concurrent behavior within objects and realizing the objects, conform to their specification is important mainly for two purposes: (a) protection against state inconsistencies due to concurrent use, and (b) efficient resource allocation. This paper presents a new approach to concurrency specification and control for objects in a concurrent object-oriented application. It makes use of Petri nets to model the concurrent behavior of objects. The encapsulation of the net within objects yields the advantage of complexity management and flexibility in object development (enabling the choice of the used net model for each class of objects separately).
The PN-TOX (Petri Net Tools for Object Concurrency Specification and Control) environment supports the development, realization and visualization of an object's Petri net.