Model-Driven Development - From Object-Oriented Design to Actor-Oriented Dsign

Edward A. Lee

Extended abstract of an invited presentation at Workshop on Software Engineering for Embedded Systems: From Requirements to Implementation (a.k.a. The Monterey Workshop) Chicago, September 24, 2003

ABSTRACT

Most current software engineering is deeply rooted in procedural abstractions. These say little about concurrency, temporal properties, and assumptions and guarantees in the face of dynamic system structure. Actor-oriented design contrasts with (and complements) object-oriented design by emphasizing concurrency and communication between components. Components called actors execute and communicate with other actors. While interfaces in object-oriented design (methods, principally) mediate transfer of the locus of control, interfaces in actor-oriented design (which we call ports) mediate communication. But the communication is not assumed to involve a transfer of control. This paper explores the use of behavioral type systems in actor-oriented design.