Communicating and Mobile Systems: The [symbol for Pi]-calculus

In this book Robin Milner introduces a new way of modelling communication. He treats computers and their programs as themselves built from communicating parts, rather than adding communication as an extra level of activity. But the aim of the book is to develop a theory, the [pi]-calculus, in which these things can be treated rigorously. The [pi]-calculus differs from other models of communicating behaviour mainly in its treatment of mobility. The movement of a piece of data inside a computer program is treated exactly the same as the transfer of a message - or indeed an entire computer program - across the internet. One can also describe networks which reconfigure themselves.