Specific proposals for the use of petri nets in a concurrent programming course

Abstract

Concurrency is a difficult subject to teach and learn. This paper presents a set of recipes for the use of Petri nets as a teaching aid of some fundamental concurrency concepts, in the context of an introductory concurrent programming course. Classroom experience clearly demonstrates this usage of Petri nets improves students understanding of concurrency concepts.

References

1. Ben-Ari, M. "Principles of Concurrent Programming", Prentice-Hall, 1982
2. Jensen, K. e Rozemberg(Eds.) High-level Petri Nets:Theory and Application, Springer-Verlag, 1991
3. Magee, Jeff, Kramer, Jeff, "Concurrency State Models and Java Programs", John Wiley & Sons, 1999
4. Petri Net Tools, http://www.daimi.au.dk/PetriNets/tools/
5. Reisig, Wolfgang, "Elements of Distributed Algorithms - Modeling and Analysis with Petri Nets", Springer, 1998

Index Terms

• Computing methodologies

  • Concurrent computing methodologies

    • Concurrent programming languages

• General and reference

  • Cross-computing tools and techniques

    • Validation

• Social and professional topics

  • Professional topics

    • Computing education

      • Computing education programs

        • Computer science education

• Software and its engineering

  • Software creation and management

    • Software verification and validation

      • Empirical software validation

      • Formal software verification

      • Process validation

  • Software notations and tools

    • General programming languages

      • Language types

        • Concurrent programming languages

  • Software organization and properties

    • Software functional properties

      • Formal methods

        • Model checking

    • Software system structures

      • Software system models

        • Petri nets

• Theory of computation

  • Logic

    • Verification by model checking