In: Rozenberg, G.: Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Vol. 483; Advances in Petri Nets 1990, pages 342-416. Berlin, Germany: Springer-Verlag, 1991.
Abstract: The paper describes how coloured Petri nets (CP-nets) have been developed to being a language for the design, specification, simulation, validation and implementation of large software systems (and other systems in which human beings and/or computers communicate). First CP-nets are introduced by means of a small example and a formal definition of their structure and behaviour is presented. Then the author describes how to extend CP-nets by a set of hierarchy constructs (allowing a hierarchical CP-net to consist of many different subnets, related to each other in a formal way). Next the author describes how to analyse CP-nets, how to support them by various computer tools, and the author also describes some typical applications and possible future extensions.
Keywords: coloured net: introduction, overview; system design (and) analysis; hierarchical coloured net; subnet; coloured net tool; net analysis; coloured net model extensions.