Mailboxer is a new, standalone tool that helps developers statically rule out type and communication errors in actor-based programs.
It builds on Mailbox Types, a new behavioural typing approach for actor languages such as Erlang and Elixir. By adding type annotations to their code using standard language constructs, developers can use Mailboxer to detect and rule out:
- Typos in message tags
- Mismatched message payload types
- Unreceived or unexpected messages
- Self-deadlocks
Mailboxer’s annotations naturally document the process-level API, complementing function-level documentation supported by tools like Dialyzer.
Try the prototype and explore some example programs: https://www.dcs.gla.ac.uk/stardust/MailboxerDemo.
Learn more about Mailbox Types and Mailboxer:
The STARDUST Team:
Duncan Attard, Simon Fowler, Simon Gay, Danielle Marshall, Phil Trinder, and Laura Voinea
