In general we use italicized names to refer to entities in the MPI language independent procedure definitions, and typewriter font for concrete Java entities.
Unless otherwise stated, Java argument names are identical to the corresponding language independent names. Unless otherwise stated, in non-static member functions of Comm, Status, Request, Datatype, Op or Group (and subclasses), the class instance stands for the comm, status, request, datatype, op or group argument, respectively in the corresponding the language independent procedure definition.