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Modular session types for objects
Abstract
International audienceSession types allow communication protocols to be specified type-theoretically so that protocol implementations can be verified by static type checking. We extend previous work on session types for distributed object-oriented languages in three ways. (1) We attach a session type to a class definition, to specify the possible sequences of method calls. (2) We allow a session type (protocol) implementation to be modularized, i.e. partitioned into separately-callable methods. (3) We treat session-typed communication channels as objects, integrating their session types with the session types of classes. The result is an elegant unification of communication channels and their session types, distributed object-oriented programming, and a form of typestate supporting non-uniform objects, i.e. objects that dynamically change the set of available methods. We define syntax, operational se-mantics, a sound type system, and a sound and complete type checking algorithm for a small distributed class-based object-oriented language with structural subtyping. Static typing guarantees that both sequences of messages on channels, and sequences of method calls on objects, conform to type-theoretic specifications, thus ensuring type-safety. The language includes expected features of session types, such as delegation, and expected features of object-oriented programming, such as encapsulation of local state- info:eu-repo/semantics/article
- Journal articles
- session types
- object-oriented calculus
- Non-uniform method availability
- typestate
- D.3.3 [Language Constructs and Features]: Classes and objects; D.3.1 [Formal Definitions and Theory]; F.3.2 [Semantics of Programming Languages]: Operational semantics; F.3.3 [Studies of Program Constructs]: Type structure; D.1.5
- [INFO.INFO-PL]Computer Science [cs]/Programming Languages [cs.PL]
- [INFO.INFO-WB]Computer Science [cs]/Web