21 May 2004A Piece by Asarin on Challenges in Timed Languages
It has become very common for conferences in theoretical computer science to have a large number of satellite workshops, and CONCUR is no exception. This trend has both negative and positive implications. On the positive side, the number of participants to these events has grown considerably, and one has a chance to meet many colleagues, and to listen to a varied and stimulating programme of talks. On the negative side, there is often so much going on in parallel that one ends up missing some very interesting talks---including invited addresses.
One of the talks I missed during CONCUR 2003 in Marseille was Evgeny Asarin's invited address at the First International Workshop on Formal Modeling and Analysis of Timed Systems (FORMATS 2003). I am therefore very happy to make up for having missed that talk by devoting the June 2004 issue of the Concurrency Column to a piece by Evgeny Asarin that is based upon that invited address of his. This contribution, entitled Challenges in Timed Languages: From Applied Theory to Basic Theory, reports on the author's stimulating opinions on the status of development of the theory of timed regular languages vis-a-vis that of the time honoured theory of regular languages---whose classic status and robustness are witnessed by the plethora of alternative characterizations of the notion of "regular language". There is much food for thought in this column, and I trust that the list of open problems it contains will stimulate some research on this fascinating topic.
Any reader I might have that wishes to contribute to the concurrency column is welcome to contact me!
Last modified: Friday, 21-May-2004 17:19:10 CEST.