| One direct influence that CSP has had was on the design of the concurrency features of Go: http://golang.org/doc/faq#csp In general, things like CSP and related formalisms like Petri Nets are used to build mathematical models of systems so that properties of these systems can be proved. However, they have also influenced a lot of real-world software designs - I've worked on software that controlled large scale industrial systems (cement mills) that used Petri Nets both to represent processes but also to prove properties of these processes. A watered down version of Petri Nets also formed the basis for UML Activity Digrams - if you like that kind of thing. CSP also influenced the design of the Transputer and the Occam programming language. [NB People using the bars in Activity Diagrams as a means of joining lines up rather that as their actual meaning (starting and stopping concurrent activity) drives me round the bend, but most of UML does that...] Edit: I guess it's an interesting question as to when actually knowing CS formalisms like CSP actually helps. I guess my response would be: lots of real world systems we need to analyse, control and/or build exhibit lots of complex behaviour. What's our main tools for modelling complex domains: maths. CSP is just one neat way of applying mathematical reasoning (either to structure understanding or to actually prove stuff) to concurrency. Whether you need to know this or not to be a good developer is another question - 99% probably don't. Edit2: Note that just because I have a superficial familiarity with these concepts doesn't mean I would label myself a "good developer"! |