Developing interactive applications (apps) against event-driven software frameworks such as Android is notoriously difficult. To create apps that behave as expected, developers must follow complex and often implicit asynchronous programming protocols. Such protocols intertwine the proper registering of callbacks to receive control from the framework with appropriate application- programming interface (API) calls that in turn affect the set of possible future callbacks. An app violates the protocol when, for example, it calls a particular API method in a state of the framework where such a call is invalid. What makes automated reasoning hard in this domain is largely what makes programming apps against such frameworks hard: the specification of the protocol is unclear, and the control flow is complex, asynchronous, and higher-order. In this paper, we tackle the problem of specifying and modeling event-driven application-programming protocols. In particular, we formalize a core meta-model that captures the dialogue between event-driven frameworks and application callbacks. Based on this meta-model, we define a lan- guage called lifestate that permits precise and formal descriptions of application-programming protocols and the callback control flow imposed by the event-driven framework. Lifestate unifies modeling what app callbacks can expect of the framework with specifying rules the app must respect when calling into the framework. In this way, we effectively combine lifecycle constraints and typestate rules. To evaluate the effectiveness of lifestate modeling, we provide a dynamic verification algorithm that takes as input a trace of execution of an app and a lifestate protocol specification to either produce a trace witnessing a protocol violation or a proof that no such trace is realizable.
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10:30 - 12:10: Language Design and ImplementationResearch Papers at Mancy Chair(s): John WickersonImperial College London | |||
10:30 - 10:50 Research paper | Lifestate: Event-Driven Protocols and Callback Control Flow Research Papers Shawn MeierUniversity of Colorado, Boulder, Sergio MoverEcole Polytechnique, Bor-Yuh Evan ChangUniversity of Colorado Boulder DOI Media Attached | ||
10:50 - 11:10 Research paper | Godot: All the Benefits of Implicit and Explicit Futures Research Papers Kiko Fernandez-ReyesUppsala University, Einar Broch JohnsenUniversity of Oslo, Dave ClarkeUppsala Univ. Sweden and KU Leuvern, Ludovic HenrioCNRS, Tobias WrigstadUppsala University DOI Media Attached | ||
11:10 - 11:30 Research paper | Towards Language-Parametric Semantic Editor Services based on Declarative Type System Specifications Research Papers Daniel A. A. PelsmaekerDelft University of Technology, Netherlands, Hendrik van AntwerpenTU Delft, Eelco VisserDelft University of Technology DOI Media Attached | ||
11:30 - 11:50 Research paper | Multitier Modules Research Papers DOI Media Attached | ||
11:50 - 12:10 Research paper | Scopes and Frames Improve Meta-Interpreter Specialization Research Papers Vlad VerguTU Delft, Eelco VisserDelft University of Technology, Andrew TolmachPortland State University DOI Media Attached |