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Generative communication in Linda
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Source ACM Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems (TOPLAS) archive
Volume 7 ,  Issue 1  (January 1985) table of contents
Pages: 80 - 112  
Year of Publication: 1985
ISSN:0164-0925
Author
David Gelernter  Yale Univ., New Haven, CT
Publisher
ACM  New York, NY, USA
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Downloads (6 Weeks): 34,   Downloads (12 Months): 366,   Citation Count: 295
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ABSTRACT

Generative communication is the basis of a new distributed programming langauge that is intended for systems programming in distributed settings generally and on integrated network computers in particular. It differs from previous interprocess communication models in specifying that messages be added in tuple-structured form to the computation environment, where they exist as named, independent entities until some process chooses to receive them. Generative communication results in a number of distinguishing properties in the new language, Linda, that is built around it. Linda is fully distributed in space and distributed in time; it allows distributed sharing, continuation passing, and structured naming. We discuss these properties and their implications, then give a series of examples. Linda presents novel implementation problems that we discuss in Part II. We are particularly concerned with implementation of the dynamic global name space that the generative communication model requires.


REFERENCES

Note: OCR errors may be found in this Reference List extracted from the full text article. ACM has opted to expose the complete List rather than only correct and linked references.

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BRINCH-HANSEN, P. The programming language Concurrent Pascal. IEEE Trans. Softw. Eng. SE-1, 2 (June 1975), 199-207.
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GELERNTER, D. Three reorthogonalizations in a distributed programming language. Tech. Rep., Yale Univ., Dept. Computer Science, Aug. 1983.
 
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CITED BY  295

INDEX TERMS

Classification:
  C. Computer Systems Organization
  C.2 COMPUTER-COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
      C.2.1 Network Architecture and Design
          Subjects: Network communications
      C.2.4 Distributed Systems
          Subjects: Distributed applications

  D. Software
  D.1 PROGRAMMING TECHNIQUES
  D.3 PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES
      D.3.2 Language Classifications

          Nouns: Linda
      D.3.3 Language Constructs and Features
          Subjects: Concurrent programming structures
      D.3.4 Processors
          Subjects: Compilers
  D.4 OPERATING SYSTEMS
      D.4.2 Storage Management
          Subjects: Distributed memories
      D.4.4 Communications Management
          Subjects: Message sending


General Terms:
Design, Languages, Theory


REVIEW

"Jerzy J. A. Klaczak : Reviewer"

There are three separate topics of discussion in this paper: the generative interprocess communication concept, its implementation, and examples of its use. Generative communication is a brand new model; it is the generalization of po  more...