Concrete domains (Q1314355)

This is a complete and detailed version of ``Domaines concrets'' (G. Kahn, G. D. Plotkin, Raport 336, IRIA-LABORIA, 1978) and of other previous communications by the same authors. Following the general framework of complete partial ordered sets for semantical domains (of programming languages), the paper introduces a special kind of such ``computation structures'' called ``concrete domains''. ``The purpose of this theory is to find a satisfactory framework for the notions of coroutine computation and sequentiality of evaluation''. The first five sections are mainly introductory \((\S 1\) -- Domains of computation; \(\S 2\) -- Concrete domains of computation; \(\S 3\) -- The covering relation; \(\S 4\) -- The incompatibility relation; \(\S 5\) -- The projectivity relation), while in the following two, the essential facts of the ``representations of the concrete domains'' are exposed \((\S 6\) -- The information matrix; \(\S 7\) -- The representation theorem, and this is Theorem 7.1: ``Every concrete domain is isomorphic to the set of configurations of an information matrix''). In \(\S 8\) -- Basic operations and \(\S 9\) -- Inverse limit constructions, the main general constructive ways for obtaining ``complex'' concrete domains from ``simpler'' ones, are studied. Finally, \(\S 10\) is dedicated to the study of a particular case -- very important for practical applications -- namely the ``distributive concrete domains''. For historical considerations and scientifical impact on the world of computer science general research of this article, see also \textit{S. Brookes}, ibid. 121, 179-186 (1993; see the paper reivewed below)].