[moca] Mobility FAQ ?

[Uwe.Nestmann@xxxxxxx]

On a number of occasions, especially like past CONCUR
events, or like the Process Algebra meeting that I attended
last week, I observed a certain recurring pattern concerning
some doubt and/or misunderstanding that "general"
concurrency theorists have w.r.t. representatives of the
"mobility party" (so MoCa?).

In fact, I see myself often confronted with recurring
questions, and I guess many of you must have had very
similar experiences.  For example:

Qu1: "Why the he.. do you have so many different calculi?
      Can you provide a nice comprehensible roadmap to them?
      Are there any conclusions to be drawn from this variety?"

Qu2: "Why the he.. do you have 
      so many bisimulations in the pi-calculus?" 

Qu3: "What are the (killer-) applications?"

Qu4: "What practical thing can you do with pi/ambients that
      you cannot do already with CCS/CSP/ACP?"

Qu5: "What, after all, are the 
      main contributions of >10 years of 'mobility'?"

Qu6: "Why should pi/ambients be considered 
      more fundamental than CCS/CSP/ACP?"

Qu7: "Can it be implemented?  
      Has it been implemented?"

Qu8: "How can you use for security?
      Why should it be considered better than others?"

Qu9: "Why all this fuzz about encodings?"

Qu10: "What is Robin Milner working on now?" ;-)


Thus, I am planning to compile a list of Frequently Asked
Questions.  I see two ways to get there: (1) to collect
questions that everyone of you has been asked on a regular
basis, and where you had to "defend your honour"; and (2) to
announce a "Call for FAQ" to the concurrency mailing list.

Of course, the difficult part would be to also provide good
(= crisp & correct) answers.  That said, and since I am not
capable myself of doing this all alone, my hope would be
that some/many/all of you would join me in the effort of
formulating such good answers in a cumulative manner ;-)

Comments welcome!

== Uwe ==

  
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