Distributed programming environments commonly restrict programmers to one form of intercomponent interaction. This forces
programmers to emulate other interaction styles in terms of the dominant paradigm, obscuring their intent and resulting in
a loss of clarity. Starting from a clear model of interaction between program components, this paper attempts to restore this
missing clarity of intent. It achieves this by proposing a language tailored to the description of new and existing interaction
styles that separates the specification of intercomponent interaction from the programming interface visible internally to
the component.
This research funded by British Telecom as part of the Management of Multiservice Networks project.