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Preprint (Author's original)arXiv.org - Non-exclusive license to distribute, Open
Preprint
Actor Capabilities for Message Ordering (Extended Version)
11 Feb 2025
Abstract
Actor systems are a flexible model of concurrent and distributed programming,
which are efficiently implementable, and avoid many classic concurrency bugs by
construction. However actor systems must still deal with the challenge of
messages arriving in unexpected orderings.
We describe an approach to restricting the orders in which actors send
messages to each other, by equipping actor references -- the handle used to
address another actor -- with a protocol restricting which message types can be
sent to another actor and in which order using that particular actor reference.
This endows the actor references with the properties of static (flow-sensitive)
capabilities, which we call actor capabilities.
By sending other actors only restricted actor references, they may control
which messages are sent in which orders by other actors. Rules for duplicating
(splitting) actor references ensure that these restrictions apply even in the
presence of delegation. The capabilities themselves restrict message ordering,
which may form the foundation for stronger forms of reasoning. We demonstrate
this by layering an effect system over the base type system, where the
relationships enforced between the actor capabilities and the effects of an
actor's behaviour ensure that an actor's behaviour is always prepared to handle
any message that may arrive.
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Details
- Title
- Actor Capabilities for Message Ordering (Extended Version)
- Creators
- Colin S Gordon
- Resource Type
- Preprint
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Computer Science (Computing)
- Other Identifier
- 991022028082204721