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A ''message'' is the unit of communication between two actors. A message will probably consist of a ''message type'' and a ''message payload''. The ''message type'' will specify the actor the message is intended to be sent to, the protocol the message belongs to, and the types of each datum in the ''message payload''. The ''message type'' may additionally specify the location of data in the payload; e.g., large data may be transferred through shared memory, while small ones may be sent over a pipe. The ''message type'' should make it clear which actor owns each potentially-shared datum.
A ''protocol'' is a formal definition of the messages that '''two ''' actors are allowed to send/receive to/from each other. ''Protocol'' semantics can be defined in many different ways, but we should be able to get away with "finite-state machine semantics." This means that each ''protocol'' ''actor'' has a "current state," and in that state, it is only allowed to send a set of messages ''SM'' and receive a set of messages ''RM''. Upon sending or receiving a particular message ''m'', the actor may transition into a new "state."
== Desiderata ==
