Towards Gradually Typed Capabilities in the Pi-Calculus

TL;DR

This paper introduces a preliminary framework for gradually typed pi-calculus, combining static and dynamic typing for channel capabilities, with a type system, cast insertion, and operational semantics.

Contribution

It proposes the first steps towards a gradually typed pi-calculus, including a type system, cast insertion, and semantics for runtime checks.

Findings

Demonstrated a working example of the calculus

Outlined a cast insertion procedure for runtime checks

Discussed future research directions

Abstract

Gradual typing is an approach to integrating static and dynamic typing within the same language, and puts the programmer in control of which regions of code are type checked at compile-time and which are type checked at run-time. In this paper, we focus on the pi-calculus equipped with types for the modeling of input-output capabilities of channels. We present our preliminary work towards a gradually typed version of this calculus. We present a type system, a cast insertion procedure that automatically inserts run-time checks, and an operational semantics of a pi-calculus that handles casts on channels. Although we do not claim any theoretical results on our formulations, we demonstrate our calculus with an example and discuss our future plans.