Concurrency in Object-Oriented Programming Languages

The integration of concurrent and object-oriented programming, although promising, presents problems that have not yet been fully explored. In this paper we attempt to identify issues in the design of concurrent object-oriented languages that must be addressed to achieve a satisfactory integration of concurrency in the object-oriented framework. We consider the approaches followed by object-oriented languages for supporting concurrency and identify six categories of concurrent object-oriented languages. Then, we review several concurrent object-oriented languages and examine the interaction of their concurrency features with their object-oriented features and with object-oriented software construction.