US 2003/0204641 A1 · Programming model for concurrent programs

Abstract

A system and method for developing a message-passing application program is disclosed. The message-passing application program is constructed using stages having a plurality of asynchronous functions, or operations. The operations communicate with other operations of other message-passing programs in a distributed computing environment. The operations also communicate with other operations on other stages of the message-passing application. In order to reduce deadlock errors that occur as a result of the asynchronous nature of these communications, a behavioral type signature is appended to the declaration of each operation of the message-passing application program. The behavioral type signature specifies behavioral properties for each operation, such as when an operation should send a message to another operation and, conversely, when an operation should wait for a message from another operation. A type checker utilizes typing rules and the behavioral type signature to extract an implementation model of each function. The type checker then compares the implementation model to the behavioral type signature to determine whether the asynchronous function conforms to the behavioral type signature.

Claims41

Dependent claims

A method for developing a message-passing application program having a first program module with a plurality of asynchronous functions that communicate with operations of a second program module, the method comprising:

defining a behavioral type signature for one of the plurality of asynchronous functions, the behavioral type signature specifying message-passing properties for the asynchronous function;
and
analyzing the asynchronous function against the behavioral type signature to render an evaluation on whether message-passing actions of the asynchronous function during execution of the message-passing application program will conform to the message-passing properties specified by the behavioral type signature.

A computer program product readable by a computing system and encoding a computer program of instructions for executing a computer process for controlling operations of the computing system and for developing a message-passing application program having a first program module with a plurality of asynchronous functions that communicate with operations of a second program module, the computer process comprising:

defining a behavioral type signature for one of the plurality of asynchronous functions, the behavioral type signature specifying message-passing properties for the asynchronous function;
extracting an implementation model of the asynchronous function, the implementation model reflecting message-passing actions of the asynchronous function during compilation of the message-passing application program;
and
checking the implementation model against the behavioral type signature to determine whether the asynchronous function conforms to the behavioral type signature.

1 more element

A method for evaluating behavioral properties of a message-passing application program having a first program module with a asynchronous function that communicates with operations of a second program module, the method comprising:

defining a behavioral type signature for the asynchronous function, the behavioral type signature specifying message-passing properties for the asynchronous function;
extracting an implementation model of the asynchronous function, the implementation model reflecting message-passing actions of the asynchronous function during compilation of the message-passing application program;
checking the implementation model against the behavioral type signature to determine whether conformance exists between the implementation model and the behavioral type signature;
and
rendering an evaluation on whether the asynchronous function conforms to the behavioral type signature based on whether conformance exists between the implementation model and the behavioral type signature.

2 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Programming model for concurrent programs

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Programming model for concurrent programs

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims41