Typed callbacks for more robust behaviours

Aronis, S; Sagonas, K

dc.contributor.author	Aronis, S	en
dc.contributor.author	Sagonas, K	en
dc.date.accessioned	2014-03-01T02:53:31Z
dc.date.available	2014-03-01T02:53:31Z
dc.date.issued	2011	en
dc.identifier.uri	https://dspace.lib.ntua.gr/xmlui/handle/123456789/36375
dc.subject	abstract classes	en
dc.subject	behaviours	en
dc.subject	erlang	en
dc.subject.other	Abstract class	en
dc.subject.other	Abstraction layer	en
dc.subject.other	behaviours	en
dc.subject.other	Design Patterns	en
dc.subject.other	erlang	en
dc.subject.other	Formal definition	en
dc.subject.other	Function specification	en
dc.subject.other	Functional characteristics	en
dc.subject.other	Abstracting	en
dc.subject.other	Computer programming languages	en
dc.subject.other	Functional programming	en
dc.subject.other	Program compilers	en
dc.subject.other	Static analysis	en
dc.title	Typed callbacks for more robust behaviours	en
heal.type	conferenceItem	en
heal.identifier.primary	10.1145/2034654.2034660	en
heal.identifier.secondary	http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2034654.2034660	en
heal.publicationDate	2011	en
heal.abstract	Behaviours are one of the most widely used features of Erlang/OTP. They offer a convenient and well-tested abstraction layer for frequently employed design patterns in concurrent Erlang programming. In effect, they allow programmers to focus on the functional characteristics of their applications without having to resort to Erlang's concurrency-supporting primitives. However, when it comes to ensuring that behaviours are properly used and callbacks are as expected, the current Erlang/OTP compiler performs only minimal checks. This is no fault of the compiler though, because most/all of the callbacks' API exists only in the documentation or the comments accompanying the code; as such, it cannot always be trusted and it is almost impossible to have it mechanically processed. In this paper, we propose a small extension to the language of function specifications of Erlang to allow the formal definition of the behaviours' callback API. We have implemented this extension on the development branch of Erlang/OTP and provide evidence of how it can be leveraged by static analysis tools such as Dialyzer to detect behaviour misuses. © 2011 ACM.	en
heal.journalName	Erlang'11 - Proceedings of the 2011 ACM SIGPLAN Erlang Workshop	en
dc.identifier.doi	10.1145/2034654.2034660	en
dc.identifier.spage	23	en
dc.identifier.epage	29	en