The Actor model has, of course, the actor construct, Z has its schemas, Demeter has its propagation patterns, predicate calculus has proof rules, etc. A methodology is a language and model coupled with a set of rules, heuristics, suggestions, patterns, etc. A methodology is the full conceptual and descriptive package, but it is not complete without the behavioral description of how to use the methodology. A process is just that description. It is the set of rules and heuristics that are provided as a guide for building the specification of the system with a methodology.
Some processes are specific to a particular method, others are generic.
This thesis is the first step on the road toward formal specification of dynamic, emergent, distributed component systems. The reader should be familiar with the Unified Modeling Language and at least one formal specification language. In Chapter , I will discuss the general problem of systems and component specification in more detail. Next, in Chapter , I will describe some of our extensions to an existing system-level specification methodology. Then, in Chapter , I will describe the requirements, design, and implementation of the Infospheres Infrastructure 1.0, a dynamic, emergent, component-based framework.