Compiling graph-based program specifications

A method for processing a graph-based program specification, the method including:

• receiving the graph-based program specification, the graph-based program specification including:
• a plurality of components, each corresponding to a processing task and including one or more ports for sending or receiving one or more data elements;
• and
• one or more links, each link of the one or more links connecting an output port of an upstream component of the plurality of components to an input port of a downstream component of the plurality of components;
• and
• processing the graph-based program specification to generate prepared code representing subsets of the plurality of components of the graph-based program specification, the processing including:
• identifying a plurality of subset boundaries between components in different subsets based at least in part on characteristics of linked components;
• forming the subsets based on the identified subset boundaries;
• and
• generating prepared code for each formed subset that when used for execution by a runtime system causes processing tasks corresponding to the components in that formed subset to be performed according to information embedded in the prepared code for that formed subset.