Inheritance in Actor Based Concurrent Object-Oriented Languages

Abstract

Inheritance is a valuable mechanism which enhances reusability and maintainability of software. A language design based on the actor model of concurrent computation faces a serious problem arising from the interference between concurrency and inheritance. A similar problem also occurs in other concurrent object-oriented languages. In this paper, we describe problems found in existing concurrent object-oriented languages. We present a solution which is based on a concept called behaviour abstraction.