In this paper we introduce constraint automata and propose them as an operational model for Reo, an exogenous coordination language for compositional construction of component connectors based on a calculus of channels. By providing composition operators for constraint automata and defining notions of equivalence and refinement relations for them, this paper covers the foundations for building tools to address concerns such as the automated construction of the automaton for a given component connector, equivalence checking or containment checking of the behavior of two given connectors, and verification of coordination mechanisms.

International audienceTo program parallel systems efficiently and easily, a wide range of programming models have been proposed, each with different choices concerning synchronization and communication between parallel entities. Among them, the actor model is based on loosely coupled parallel entities that communicate by means of asynchronous messages and mailboxes. Some actor languages provide a strong integration with object-oriented concepts; these are often called active object languages. This paper reviews four major actor and active object languages and compares them according to carefully chosen dimensions that cover central aspects of the programming paradigms and their implementation

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