occam

Occam
    n 1: English scholastic philosopher and assumed author of
         Occam's Razor (1285-1349) [syn: {Occam}, {William of
         Occam}, {Ockham}, {William of Ockham}]
    

occam

   <language> (Note lower case) A language based on {Anthony
   Hoare}'s {CSP} and {David May}'s {EPL}.  Named after the
   English philosopher, William of Occam (1300-1349) who
   propounded {Occam's Razor}.  The occam language was designed
   by David May of {INMOS} to easily describe {concurrent}
   processes which communicate via one-way channels.  It was
   developed to run on the {INMOS} {transputer} but {compilers}
   are available for {VAX}, {Sun} and {Intel} {MDS}, inter alia.

   The basic entity in occam is the process of which there are
   four fundamental types, {assignment}, input, output, and wait.
   More complex processes are constructed from these using SEQ to
   specify sequential execution, PAR to specify parallel
   execution and ALT where each process is associated with an
   input from a channel.  The process whose channel inputs first
   is executed.  The fourth constructor is IF with a list of
   conditions and associated processes.  The process executed is
   the one with the first true condition in textual order.  There
   is no {operator precedence}.

   The original occam is now known as "occam 1".  It was extended
   to {occam 2}.

   Simulator for VAX (ftp://watserv1.waterloo.edu/).

   Tahoe mailing list: <[email protected]>.

   [David May et al, 1982.  "Concurrent algorithms"].

   ["Occam", D. May, SIGPLAN Notices 18(4):69-79, 1983].

   (1994-11-18)