Functional BIP: Embedding connectors in functional programming languages

This paper presents a theoretical foundation for functional language implementations of Behaviour–Interaction–Priority (BIP). We introduce a set of connector combinators describing synchronisation, data transfer, priorities and dynamicity in a principled way. A static type system ensures the soundness of connector semantics. Based on this foundation, we implemented BIP as an embedded domain specific language (DSL) in Haskell and Scala. The DSL embedding allows programmers to benefit from the full expressive power of high-level languages. The clear separation of behaviour and coordination inherited from BIP leads to systems that are arguably simpler to maintain and reason about, compared to other approaches.