ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces message passing which incorporates both data transfer and synchronization within the same communication primitives. It suggests that message passing is a valid alternative to interprocess communication based on shared variables and synchronization devices because it encompasses both data transfer and synchronization in the same set of primitives. For the sake of completeness, it should also be remarked that the message-addressing scheme based on explicitly naming the source and recipient of a message, is not the only possible one. It may be of interest to look for a different interprocess communication approach in which one single supporting mechanism accomplishes both data transfer and synchronization, instead of having two distinct mechanisms for that. In this way, we would not only have a higher-level interprocess communication mechanism at our disposal but we will be able to use it even if there is no shared memory available.
