Methods and systems for developing data flow programs

A computer-implemented method in a data processing system having a computer program for developing a data flow program comprising code segments that operate on data in memory, the method comprising the steps of:

• dividing a memory area into blocks and associating each block with at least a portion of the data and with at least one code segment;
• storing data read and data write identifiers for each code segment, the data read and data write identifiers identifying at least a portion of the data read or written by the code segment;
• determining dependencies between blocks based on the read and write identifiers;
• generating a graph representation of the data flow program, the graph representation comprising nodes associated with the blocks, and dependencies between the blocks that provide an execution order for the code segments;
• executing a debugging command on the data flow program.

A computer-implemented method in a data processing system having a computer program for developing a data flow program comprising nodes, the method comprising the steps of:

• initiating execution of the data flow program;
• and
• executing a debugging command on the data flow program,
• wherein dependencies between nodes are determined based on data read and data write identifiers for code segments associated with the respective nodes, the data read and data write identifiers identifying at least a portion of data read or written by the code segment.

A computer-readable medium containing instructions that cause a data processing system to perform a computer-implemented method for developing a data flow program comprising code segments that operate on data in memory, the method comprising the steps of:

• dividing a memory area into blocks and associating each block with at least a portion of the data and with at least one code segment;
• storing data read and data write identifiers for each code segment, the data read and data write identifiers identifying at least a portion of the data read or written by the code segment;
• determining dependencies between blocks based on the data read and data write identifiers;
• generating a graph representation of the data flow program, the representation comprising nodes associated with the blocks, and dependencies between the blocks that provide an execution
• order for the code segments;
• executing a debugging command on the data flow program.

A data processing system comprising:

• a memory comprising a computer-implemented data flow program and a computer-implemented data flow development tool that associates data processed by the data flow program with blocks in the memory, that associates code segments of the data flow program to the blocks, that stores data read and data write identifiers for each code segment, the data read and data write identifiers identifying at least a portion of the data read or written by the code segment;
• that determines dependencies between the blocks that provide an execution order for the blocks based on the data read and data write identifiers, that executes code segments in parallel using multiple threads, and that executes debugging commands on the data flow program;
• and
• a processor that runs the data flow development tool.

A data processing system for developing a computer-implemented data flow program, the data processing system comprising:

• means for apportioning a memory area into regions and associating data and code segments of a data flow program with the regions in which they are stored;
• means for storing data read and data write identifiers in the memory area for each code segment, the data read and data write identifiers identifying at least a portion of the data read or written by the code segment;
• means for determining dependencies between the regions based on the data read and data write identifiers;
• and
• means for executing debugging commands on the data flow program in the memory area.

A computer readable memory device encoded with a computer-implemented data structure accessed by a computer-implemented data flow development tool run by a processor in a computer system, the data structure comprising:

• nodes assigned to at least a portion of data processed by a data flow program comprising code segments, the nodes also assigned to at least one code segment;
• data read and data write identifiers for each code segment, the data read and data write identifiers identifying at least a portion of the data read or written by the code segment;
• dependencies between nodes determined based on the data read and data write identifiers;
• and
• debugging information specified by a debugging command, wherein the data flow development tool accesses the data structure to execute the debugging command on the data flow program.