Towards a Framework for Concurrent Design

By a framework for concurrent design we mean: (1) formal ways of stating the problems of concurrent design, (2) visualization (conceptualization) aids to help devise strategies for solving these problems, and (3) implementation aids to help translate the strategies into working systems. This paper begins by defining some terms, including "conflict," and "computational path." Next, concurrent design problems are formulated in these terms. Specifically, these problems are shown to be equivalent to finding computational paths that avoid or eleminate conflicts and connect given dataobjects to desired data-objects. A class of graphs, called TAO graphs, is developed for visualizing such paths. Finally, a computational environment, called FORS, is described for implementing selected paths.