Actors as a Coordinating Model of Computation

This paper relates two prominent models of concurrent computation, namely Actors and the …-calculus . We build on a thesis that proclaims ‐ Actors enact the role of a coordinating model of computation. We enrich the Actor model by defining a mechanism for achieving a higher level of abstraction. This helps in reasoning with collections of Actors termed Actor Troupes . We identify a notion of interaction equivalence between Actor Troupes; and provide a semantic foundation for the enriched Actor model, in terms of the … -calculus ‐ which has emerged as the canonical process calculus for the semantic analysis of objectbased concurrent systems. Furthermore, we show that the algebraic notion of barbed bisimilarity in the … -calculus, corresponds precisely to interaction equivalence of the corresponding Actor Troupes. .

[1]  David Walker,et al.  Objects in the pi-Calculus , 1992, Inf. Comput..

[2]  Robin Milner,et al.  Communication and concurrency , 1989, PHI Series in computer science.

[3]  Mario Tokoro,et al.  An Object Calculus for Asynchronous Communication , 1991, ECOOP.

[4]  Cliff B. Jones.  A pi-Calculus Semantics for an Object-Based Design Notation , 1993, CONCUR.

[5]  Carl Hewitt,et al.  A Universal Modular ACTOR Formalism for Artificial Intelligence , 1973, IJCAI.

[6]  Carolyn L. Talcott,et al.  Interaction Semantics for Components of Distributed Systems , 1997 .

[7]  Kim B. Bruce.  A paradigmatic object-oriented programming language: Design, static typing and semantics , 1994, Journal of Functional Programming.

[8]  G. Plotkin,et al.  Proof, language, and interaction: essays in honour of Robin Milner , 2000 .

[9]  Gérard Berry,et al.  The chemical abstract machine , 1989, POPL '90.

[10]  Robin Milner,et al.  Barbed Bisimulation , 1992, ICALP.

[11]  Gul A. Agha,et al.  ActorSpace: an open distributed programming paradigm , 1993, PPOPP '93.

[12]  Oscar Nierstrasz,et al.  Towards and Object Calculus , 1991, Object-Based Concurrent Computing.

[13]  Oscar Nierstrasz,et al.  Object-Based Models and Languages for Concurrent Systems , 1994, Lecture Notes in Computer Science.

[14]  Michael Papathomas.  A Unifying Framework for Process Calculus Semantics of Concurrent Object-Based Languages and Feature , 1991 .

[15]  Kenneth M. Kahn,et al.  Actors as a special case of concurrent constraint (logic) programming , 1990, OOPSLA/ECOOP '90.

[16]  Gérard Boudol,et al.  Asynchrony and the Pi-calculus , 1992 .

[17]  Benjamin C. Pierce,et al.  Pict: a programming language based on the Pi-Calculus , 2000, Proof, Language, and Interaction.

[18]  David Walker,et al.  Pi-Calculus Semantics of Object-Oriented Programming Languages , 1991, TACS.

[19]  Guy Vidal-Naquet,et al.  Actors as a Parallel Programming Model , 1991, STACS.

[20]  Bertrand Meyer,et al.  Systematic concurrent object-oriented programming , 1993, CACM.

[21]  Grzegorz Rozenberg,et al.  Actor grammars , 2005, Mathematical systems theory.

[22]  Carolyn L. Talcott,et al.  A foundation for actor computation , 1997, Journal of Functional Programming.

[23]  米沢 明憲.  ABCL : an object-oriented concurrent system , 1990 .

[24]  Carl Hewitt,et al.  Viewing Control Structures as Patterns of Passing Messages , 1977, Artif. Intell..

[25]  Mario Tokoro,et al.  Traces Semantics for Actor Systems , 1991, Object-Based Concurrent Computing.

[26]  Benjamin C. Pierce,et al.  Concurrent Objects in a Process Calculus , 1994, Theory and Practice of Parallel Programming.

[27]  Gul A. Agha,et al.  ACTORS - a model of concurrent computation in distributed systems , 1985, MIT Press series in artificial intelligence.

[28]  Michael Papathomas,et al.  A Unifying Framework for Process Calculus Semantics of Concurrent Object-Oriented Languages , 1991, Object-Based Concurrent Computing.

[29]  Davide Sangiorgi,et al.  From pi-Calculus to Higher-Order pi-Calculus - and Back , 1993, TAPSOFT.

[30]  Robin Milner,et al.  A Calculus of Mobile Processes, II , 1992, Inf. Comput..

[31]  Carolyn L. Talcott,et al.  Towards a Theory of Actor Computation , 1992, CONCUR.

[32]  Davide Sangiorgi,et al.  The Pi-Calculus - a theory of mobile processes , 2001 .

[33]  William D. Clinger,et al.  Foundations of Actor Semantics , 1981 .

[34]  Robin Milner,et al.  Communicating and mobile systems - the Pi-calculus , 1999 .

[35]  Bent Thomsen,et al.  Plain CHOCS A second generation calculus for higher order processes , 2005, Acta Informatica.

[36]  R. K. Shyamasundar,et al.  Actors as a Coordinating Model of Computation (Extended Abstract) , 1996, Ershov Memorial Conference.

[37]  Robin Milner,et al.  Elements of interaction , 1993 .

[38]  Catuscia Palamidessi,et al.  Comparing the expressive power of the synchronous and the asynchronous π-calculus , 1998, POPL '97.

[39]  Gul A. Agha,et al.  Supporting Multiparadigm Programming on Actor Architectures , 1989, PARLE.

[40]  Robin Milner,et al.  Functions as processes , 1990, Mathematical Structures in Computer Science.

[41]  Carl Hewitt,et al.  Laws for Communicating Parallel Processes , 1977, IFIP Congress.

[42]  Jean-Marc Andreoli,et al.  Rule-Based Object Coordination , 1994, ECOOP Workshop.

[43]  Oscar Nierstrasz,et al.  Towards an Object Calculus ∗ , 1991 .

[44]  Mario Tokoro,et al.  A small calculus for concurrent objects , 1991, OOPSLA/ECOOP '90.

[45]  Jan A. Bergstra,et al.  Algebra of Communicating Processes with Abstraction , 1985, Theor. Comput. Sci..

[46]  Martín Abadi,et al.  A Theory of Primitive Objects: Second-Order Systems , 1995, Sci. Comput. Program..

[47]  Frits W. Vaandrager,et al.  Process algebra semantics of POOL , 1992 .