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Documents authored by Richter, David


Document
Compiling with Arrays

Authors: David Richter, Timon Böhler, Pascal Weisenburger, and Mira Mezini

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 313, 38th European Conference on Object-Oriented Programming (ECOOP 2024)


Abstract
Linear algebra computations are foundational for neural networks and machine learning, often handled through arrays. While many functional programming languages feature lists and recursion, arrays in linear algebra demand constant-time access and bulk operations. To bridge this gap, some languages represent arrays as (eager) functions instead of lists. In this paper, we connect this idea to a formal logical foundation by interpreting functions as the usual negative types from polarized type theory, and arrays as the corresponding dual positive version of the function type. Positive types are defined to have a single elimination form whose computational interpretation is pattern matching. Just like (positive) product types bind two variables during pattern matching, (positive) array types bind variables with multiplicity during pattern matching. We follow a similar approach for Booleans by introducing conditionally-defined variables. The positive formulation for the array type enables us to combine typed partial evaluation and common subexpression elimination into an elegant algorithm whose result enjoys a property we call maximal fission, which we argue can be beneficial for further optimizations. For this purpose, we present the novel intermediate representation indexed administrative normal form (A_{i}NF), which relies on the formal logical foundation of the positive formulation for the array type to facilitate maximal loop fission and subsequent optimizations. A_{i}NF is normal with regard to commuting conversion for both let-bindings and for-loops, leading to flat and maximally fissioned terms. We mechanize the translation and normalization from a simple surface language to A_{i}NF, establishing that the process terminates, preserves types, and produces maximally fissioned terms.

Cite as

David Richter, Timon Böhler, Pascal Weisenburger, and Mira Mezini. Compiling with Arrays. In 38th European Conference on Object-Oriented Programming (ECOOP 2024). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 313, pp. 33:1-33:24, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2024)


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@InProceedings{richter_et_al:LIPIcs.ECOOP.2024.33,
  author =	{Richter, David and B\"{o}hler, Timon and Weisenburger, Pascal and Mezini, Mira},
  title =	{{Compiling with Arrays}},
  booktitle =	{38th European Conference on Object-Oriented Programming (ECOOP 2024)},
  pages =	{33:1--33:24},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-341-6},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2024},
  volume =	{313},
  editor =	{Aldrich, Jonathan and Salvaneschi, Guido},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ECOOP.2024.33},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-208823},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ECOOP.2024.33},
  annote =	{Keywords: array languages, functional programming, domain-specific languages, normalization by evaluation, common subexpression elimination, polarity, positive function type, intrinsic types}
}
Document
Artifact
Compiling with Arrays (Artifact)

Authors: David Richter, Timon Böhler, Pascal Weisenburger, and Mira Mezini

Published in: DARTS, Volume 10, Issue 2, Special Issue of the 38th European Conference on Object-Oriented Programming (ECOOP 2024)


Abstract
Linear algebra computations are foundational for neural networks and machine learning, often handled through arrays. While many functional programming languages feature lists and recursion, arrays in linear algebra demand constant-time access and bulk operations. To bridge this gap, some languages represent arrays as (eager) functions instead of lists. In this paper, we connect this idea to a formal logical foundation by interpreting functions as the usual negative types from polarized type theory, and arrays as the corresponding dual positive version of the function type. Positive types are defined to have a single elimination form whose computational interpretation is pattern matching. Just like (positive) product types bind two variables during pattern matching, (positive) array types bind variables with multiplicity during pattern matching. We follow a similar approach for Booleans by introducing conditionally-defined variables. The positive formulation for the array type enables us to combine typed partial evaluation and common subexpression elimination into an elegant algorithm whose result enjoys a property we call maximal fission, which we argue can be beneficial for further optimizations. For this purpose, we present the novel intermediate representation indexed administrative normal form (A_{i}NF), which relies on the formal logical foundation of the positive formulation for the array type to facilitate maximal loop fission and subsequent optimizations. A_{i}NF is normal with regard to commuting conversion for both let-bindings and for-loops, leading to flat and maximally fissioned terms. We mechanize the translation and normalization from a simple surface language to A_{i}NF, establishing that the process terminates, preserves types, and produces maximally fissioned terms.

Cite as

David Richter, Timon Böhler, Pascal Weisenburger, and Mira Mezini. Compiling with Arrays (Artifact). In Special Issue of the 38th European Conference on Object-Oriented Programming (ECOOP 2024). Dagstuhl Artifacts Series (DARTS), Volume 10, Issue 2, pp. 18:1-18:7, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2024)


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@Article{richter_et_al:DARTS.10.2.18,
  author =	{Richter, David and B\"{o}hler, Timon and Weisenburger, Pascal and Mezini, Mira},
  title =	{{Compiling with Arrays (Artifact)}},
  pages =	{18:1--18:7},
  journal =	{Dagstuhl Artifacts Series},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-342-3},
  ISSN =	{2509-8195},
  year =	{2024},
  volume =	{10},
  number =	{2},
  editor =	{Richter, David and B\"{o}hler, Timon and Weisenburger, Pascal and Mezini, Mira},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/DARTS.10.2.18},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-209168},
  doi =		{10.4230/DARTS.10.2.18},
  annote =	{Keywords: array languages, functional programming, domain-specific languages, normalization by evaluation, common subexpression elimination, polarity, positive function type, intrinsic types}
}
Document
A Direct-Style Effect Notation for Sequential and Parallel Programs

Authors: David Richter, Timon Böhler, Pascal Weisenburger, and Mira Mezini

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 263, 37th European Conference on Object-Oriented Programming (ECOOP 2023)


Abstract
Modeling sequential and parallel composition of effectful computations has been investigated in a variety of languages for a long time. In particular, the popular do-notation provides a lightweight effect embedding for any instance of a monad. Idiom bracket notation, on the other hand, provides an embedding for applicatives. First, while monads force effects to be executed sequentially, ignoring potential for parallelism, applicatives do not support sequential effects. Composing sequential with parallel effects remains an open problem. This is even more of an issue as real programs consist of a combination of both sequential and parallel segments. Second, common notations do not support invoking effects in direct-style, instead forcing a rigid structure upon the code. In this paper, we propose a mixed applicative/monadic notation that retains parallelism where possible, but allows sequentiality where necessary. We leverage a direct-style notation where sequentiality or parallelism is derived from the structure of the code. We provide a mechanisation of our effectful language in Coq and prove that our compilation approach retains the parallelism of the source program.

Cite as

David Richter, Timon Böhler, Pascal Weisenburger, and Mira Mezini. A Direct-Style Effect Notation for Sequential and Parallel Programs. In 37th European Conference on Object-Oriented Programming (ECOOP 2023). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 263, pp. 25:1-25:22, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2023)


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@InProceedings{richter_et_al:LIPIcs.ECOOP.2023.25,
  author =	{Richter, David and B\"{o}hler, Timon and Weisenburger, Pascal and Mezini, Mira},
  title =	{{A Direct-Style Effect Notation for Sequential and Parallel Programs}},
  booktitle =	{37th European Conference on Object-Oriented Programming (ECOOP 2023)},
  pages =	{25:1--25:22},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-281-5},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2023},
  volume =	{263},
  editor =	{Ali, Karim and Salvaneschi, Guido},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ECOOP.2023.25},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-182181},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ECOOP.2023.25},
  annote =	{Keywords: do-notation, parallelism, concurrency, effects}
}
Document
Artifact
A Direct-Style Effect Notation for Sequential and Parallel Programs (Artifact)

Authors: David Richter, Timon Böhler, Pascal Weisenburger, and Mira Mezini

Published in: DARTS, Volume 9, Issue 2, Special Issue of the 37th European Conference on Object-Oriented Programming (ECOOP 2023)


Abstract
Modeling sequential and parallel composition of effectful computations has been investigated in a variety of languages for a long time. In particular, the popular do-notation provides a lightweight effect embedding for any instance of a monad. Idiom bracket notation, on the other hand, provides an embedding for applicatives. First, while monads force effects to be executed sequentially, ignoring potential for parallelism, applicatives do not support sequential effects. Composing sequential with parallel effects remains an open problem. This is even more of an issue as real programs consist of a combination of both sequential and parallel segments. Second, common notations do not support invoking effects in direct-style, instead forcing a rigid structure upon the code. In this paper, we propose a mixed applicative/monadic notation that retains parallelism where possible, but allows sequentiality where necessary. We leverage a direct-style notation where sequentiality or parallelism is derived from the structure of the code. We provide a mechanisation of our effectful language in Coq and prove that our compilation approach retains the parallelism of the source program.

Cite as

David Richter, Timon Böhler, Pascal Weisenburger, and Mira Mezini. A Direct-Style Effect Notation for Sequential and Parallel Programs (Artifact). In Special Issue of the 37th European Conference on Object-Oriented Programming (ECOOP 2023). Dagstuhl Artifacts Series (DARTS), Volume 9, Issue 2, pp. 17:1-17:3, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2023)


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@Article{richter_et_al:DARTS.9.2.17,
  author =	{Richter, David and B\"{o}hler, Timon and Weisenburger, Pascal and Mezini, Mira},
  title =	{{A Direct-Style Effect Notation for Sequential and Parallel Programs (Artifact)}},
  pages =	{17:1--17:3},
  journal =	{Dagstuhl Artifacts Series},
  ISSN =	{2509-8195},
  year =	{2023},
  volume =	{9},
  number =	{2},
  editor =	{Richter, David and B\"{o}hler, Timon and Weisenburger, Pascal and Mezini, Mira},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/DARTS.9.2.17},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-182573},
  doi =		{10.4230/DARTS.9.2.17},
  annote =	{Keywords: do-notation, parallelism, concurrency, effects}
}
Document
Artifact
Prisma: A Tierless Language for Enforcing Contract-Client Protocols in Decentralized Applications (Artifact)

Authors: David Richter, David Kretzler, Pascal Weisenburger, Guido Salvaneschi, Sebastian Faust, and Mira Mezini

Published in: DARTS, Volume 8, Issue 2, Special Issue of the 36th European Conference on Object-Oriented Programming (ECOOP 2022)


Abstract
Decentralized applications (dApps) consist of smart contracts that run on blockchains and clients that model collaborating parties. dApps are used to model financial and legal business functionality. Today, contracts and clients are written as separate programs - in different programming languages - communicating via send and receive operations. This makes distributed program flow awkward to express and reason about, increasing the potential for mismatches in the client-contract interface, which can be exploited by malicious clients, potentially leading to huge financial losses. In this paper, we present Prisma, a language for tierless decentralized applications, where the contract and its clients are defined in one unit. Pairs of send and receive actions that “belong together” are encapsulated into a single direct-style operation, which is executed differently by sending and receiving parties. This enables expressing distributed program flow via standard control flow and renders mismatching communication impossible. We prove formally that our compiler preserves program behavior in presence of an attacker controlling the client code. We systematically compare Prisma with mainstream and advanced programming models for dApps and provide empirical evidence for its expressiveness and performance.

Cite as

David Richter, David Kretzler, Pascal Weisenburger, Guido Salvaneschi, Sebastian Faust, and Mira Mezini. Prisma: A Tierless Language for Enforcing Contract-Client Protocols in Decentralized Applications (Artifact). In Special Issue of the 36th European Conference on Object-Oriented Programming (ECOOP 2022). Dagstuhl Artifacts Series (DARTS), Volume 8, Issue 2, pp. 16:1-16:3, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2022)


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@Article{richter_et_al:DARTS.8.2.16,
  author =	{Richter, David and Kretzler, David and Weisenburger, Pascal and Salvaneschi, Guido and Faust, Sebastian and Mezini, Mira},
  title =	{{Prisma: A Tierless Language for Enforcing Contract-Client Protocols in Decentralized Applications (Artifact)}},
  pages =	{16:1--16:3},
  journal =	{Dagstuhl Artifacts Series},
  ISSN =	{2509-8195},
  year =	{2022},
  volume =	{8},
  number =	{2},
  editor =	{Richter, David and Kretzler, David and Weisenburger, Pascal and Salvaneschi, Guido and Faust, Sebastian and Mezini, Mira},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/DARTS.8.2.16},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-162149},
  doi =		{10.4230/DARTS.8.2.16},
  annote =	{Keywords: Domain Specific Languages, Smart Contracts, Scala}
}
Document
Extended Abstract
Prisma: A Tierless Language for Enforcing Contract-Client Protocols in Decentralized Applications (Extended Abstract)

Authors: David Richter, David Kretzler, Pascal Weisenburger, Guido Salvaneschi, Sebastian Faust, and Mira Mezini

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 222, 36th European Conference on Object-Oriented Programming (ECOOP 2022)


Abstract
Decentralized applications (dApps) consist of smart contracts that run on blockchains and clients that model collaborating parties. dApps are used to model financial and legal business functionality. Today, contracts and clients are written as separate programs - in different programming languages - communicating via send and receive operations. This makes distributed program flow awkward to express and reason about, increasing the potential for mismatches in the client-contract interface, which can be exploited by malicious clients, potentially leading to huge financial losses. In this paper, we present Prisma, a language for tierless decentralized applications, where the contract and its clients are defined in one unit. Pairs of send and receive actions that "belong together" are encapsulated into a single direct-style operation, which is executed differently by sending and receiving parties. This enables expressing distributed program flow via standard control flow and renders mismatching communication impossible. We prove formally that our compiler preserves program behavior in presence of an attacker controlling the client code. We systematically compare Prisma with mainstream and advanced programming models for dApps and provide empirical evidence for its expressiveness and performance. The design space of dApp programming and other multi-party languages depends on one major choice: a local model versus a global model. In a local model, parties are defined in separate programs and their interactions are encoded via send and receive effects. In a global language, parties are defined within one shared program and interactions are encoded via combined send-and-receive operations with no effects visible to the outside world. The global model is followed by tierless [Christian Queinnec, 2000; Cooper et al., 2007; Choi and Chang, 2019; Fowler et al., 2019; Serrano et al., 2006; Serrano and Prunet, 2016; Radanne et al., 2016; Weisenburger et al., 2018] and choreographic [Kohei Honda et al., 2011; Fabrizio Montesi et al., 2014; Saverio Giallorenzo et al., 2020] languages. However, known approaches to dApp programming follow the local model, thus rely on explicitly specifying the client-contract interaction protocol. Moreover, the contract and clients are implemented in different languages, hence, developers have to master two technology stacks. The dominating approach in industry is Solidity [Mix, 2019] for the contract and JavaScript for clients. Solidity relies on expressing the protocol using assertions in the contract code, which are checked at run time [Solidity documentation - common patterns, 2020]. Failing to insert the correct assertions may give parties illegal access to monetary values to the detriment of others [Nikolić et al., 2018; Luu et al., 2016]. In research, contract languages [Ankush Das et al., 2019; Michael J. Coblenz, 2017; Franklin Schrans et al., 2018; Franklin Schrans et al., 2019; Michael J. Coblenz et al., 2019; Michael J. Coblenz et al., 2019; Reed Oei et al., 2020; Sam Blackshear et al., 2019] have been proposed that rely on advanced type systems such as session types, type states, and linear types. The global model has not been explored for dApp programming. This is unfortunate given the potential to get by with a standard typing discipline and to avoid intricacies and potential mismatches of a two-language stack. Our work fills this gap by proposing Prisma - the first language that features a global programming model for Ethereum dApps. While we focus on the Ethereum blockchain, we believe our techniques to be applicable to other smart contract platforms. Prisma enables interleaving contract and client logic within the same program and adopts a direct style (DS) notation for encoding send-and-receive operations (with our awaitCl language construct) akin to languages with async/await [Gavin M. Bierman et al., 2012; Scala async rfc]. DS addresses shortcomings with the currently dominant encoding of the protocol’s finite state machines (FSM) [Mix, 2019; Michael J. Coblenz, 2017; Franklin Schrans et al., 2018; Franklin Schrans et al., 2019; Michael J. Coblenz et al., 2019; Michael J. Coblenz et al., 2019]. We argue writing FSM style corresponds to a control-flow graph of basic blocks, which is low-level and more suited to be written by a compiler than by a human. With FSM style, the contract is a passive entity whose execution is driven by clients. whereas the DS encoding allows the contract to actively ask clients for input, fitting dApp execution where a dominant contract controls execution and diverts control to other parties when their input is needed. In the following Prisma snippet, the payout function is a function invoked by the contract when it is time to pay money to a client. In Prisma, variables, methods and classes are separated into two namespaces, one for the contract and one for the clients. The payout method is located on the contract via the annotation @co. The body of the method diverts the control to the client using awaitCl(...) { ... }, hence the contained readLine call is executed on the client. Note that no explicit send/receive operations are needed but the communication protocol is expressed through the program control flow. Only after the check client == toBePayed that the correct client replied, the current contact balance balance() is transferred to the client via transfer. @co def payout(toBePayed: Arr[Address]): Unit = { awaitCl(client => client == toBePayed) { readLine("Press enter for payout") } toBePayed.transfer(balance()) } Overall, Prisma relieves the developer from the responsibility of correctly managing distributed, asynchronous program flows and the heterogeneous technology stack. Instead, the burden is put on the compiler, which distributes the program flow by means of selective continuation-passing-style (CPS) translation and defunctionalisation and inserts guards against malicious client interactions. We needed to develop a CPS translation for the code that runs on the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) since the EVM has no built-in support for concurrency primitives which could be used for asynchronous communication. While CPS translations are well-known, we cannot use them out-of-the-box because the control flow is interwoven with distribution in our case. A CPS translation that does not take distribution into account would allow malicious clients to force the contract to deviate from the intended control flow by sending a spoofed continuation. Thus, it was imperative to prove correctness of our distributed CPS translation to ensure control-flow integrity of the contract.

Cite as

David Richter, David Kretzler, Pascal Weisenburger, Guido Salvaneschi, Sebastian Faust, and Mira Mezini. Prisma: A Tierless Language for Enforcing Contract-Client Protocols in Decentralized Applications (Extended Abstract). In 36th European Conference on Object-Oriented Programming (ECOOP 2022). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 222, pp. 35:1-35:4, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2022)


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@InProceedings{richter_et_al:LIPIcs.ECOOP.2022.35,
  author =	{Richter, David and Kretzler, David and Weisenburger, Pascal and Salvaneschi, Guido and Faust, Sebastian and Mezini, Mira},
  title =	{{Prisma: A Tierless Language for Enforcing Contract-Client Protocols in Decentralized Applications}},
  booktitle =	{36th European Conference on Object-Oriented Programming (ECOOP 2022)},
  pages =	{35:1--35:4},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-225-9},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2022},
  volume =	{222},
  editor =	{Ali, Karim and Vitek, Jan},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ECOOP.2022.35},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-162632},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ECOOP.2022.35},
  annote =	{Keywords: Domain Specific Languages, Smart Contracts, Scala}
}
Document
Pearl
Multiparty Languages: The Choreographic and Multitier Cases (Pearl)

Authors: Saverio Giallorenzo, Fabrizio Montesi, Marco Peressotti, David Richter, Guido Salvaneschi, and Pascal Weisenburger

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 194, 35th European Conference on Object-Oriented Programming (ECOOP 2021)


Abstract
Choreographic languages aim to express multiparty communication protocols, by providing primitives that make interaction manifest. Multitier languages enable programming computation that spans across several tiers of a distributed system, by supporting primitives that allow computation to change the location of execution. Rooted into different theoretical underpinnings - respectively process calculi and lambda calculus - the two paradigms have been investigated independently by different research communities with little or no contact. As a result, the link between the two paradigms has remained hidden for long. In this paper, we show that choreographic languages and multitier languages are surprisingly similar. We substantiate our claim by isolating the core abstractions that differentiate the two approaches and by providing algorithms that translate one into the other in a straightforward way. We believe that this work paves the way for joint research and cross-fertilisation among the two communities.

Cite as

Saverio Giallorenzo, Fabrizio Montesi, Marco Peressotti, David Richter, Guido Salvaneschi, and Pascal Weisenburger. Multiparty Languages: The Choreographic and Multitier Cases (Pearl). In 35th European Conference on Object-Oriented Programming (ECOOP 2021). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 194, pp. 22:1-22:27, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2021)


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@InProceedings{giallorenzo_et_al:LIPIcs.ECOOP.2021.22,
  author =	{Giallorenzo, Saverio and Montesi, Fabrizio and Peressotti, Marco and Richter, David and Salvaneschi, Guido and Weisenburger, Pascal},
  title =	{{Multiparty Languages: The Choreographic and Multitier Cases}},
  booktitle =	{35th European Conference on Object-Oriented Programming (ECOOP 2021)},
  pages =	{22:1--22:27},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-190-0},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2021},
  volume =	{194},
  editor =	{M{\o}ller, Anders and Sridharan, Manu},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ECOOP.2021.22},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-140658},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ECOOP.2021.22},
  annote =	{Keywords: Distributed Programming, Choreographies, Multitier Languages}
}
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