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Categorical principles, techniques and results for high-level-replacement systems in computer science

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Abstract

The aim of this paper is to give an introduction how to use categorical methods in a specific field of computer science: The field of high-level-replacement systems has its roots in the well-established theories of formal languages, term rewriting, Petri nets, and graph grammars playing a fundamental role in computer science. More precisely, it is a generalization of the algebraic approach to graph grammars which is based on gluing constructions for graphs defined as pushouts in the category of graphs. The categorical theory of high-level-replacement systems is suitable for the dynamic handling of a large variety of high-level structures in computer science including different kinds of graphs and algebraic specifications. In this paper we discuss the basic principles and techniques from category theory applied in the field of high-level-replacement systems and present some basic results together with the corresponding categorical proof techniques.

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  1. Technical University of Berlin, Germany

    Hartmut Ehrig & Michael Löwe

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  1. Hartmut Ehrig
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  2. Michael Löwe
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Ehrig, H., Löwe, M. Categorical principles, techniques and results for high-level-replacement systems in computer science. Appl Categor Struct 1, 21–50 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00872984

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