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Copyright Tristan Aubrey-Jones May 2008.
Abstract: A project investigating and developing an implicitly concurrent programming language, based on a metaphor taken from the physical world is reported. Uses a programming paradigm where programs consist of systems of autonomous agents, or active objects which communicate via message passing. A language enhancing Java with actors and linear types is presented. Example programs are written, compiled, and executed to evaluate the usefulness of the language. The language found to provide a familiar notation for implicit parallelism, and a compelling new model for concurrency, combining the performance of shared variables with the elegance of message passing.
Introductory Slides (PDF),
Report (PDF),
ActiveJava compiler prototype (ajavac),
ActiveJava runtime library (ajava_lang).
Examples:
calc - pocket calculator actor program
dining - dining philosophers actor program (never deadlocks)
sort - parallel quicksort implementation ("SortBenchmark" sorts 10,000 random integers using actors, java threads, and sequentially and compares)
To compile examples use:compile.bat ./calc compile.bat ./sort compile.bat ./diningTo run examples use:
run ./calc Main run ./dining Main run ./dining Main fast run ./sort Main run ./sort SortingBenchmark
import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
public aclass AFrame extends AComponent {
// private fields
protected JFrame frame;
protected AContainer contentPane;
// public final AContainer.ContainerAccessor getContentPane;
public AFrame(String title) {
super(new JFrame(title));
// init
frame = (JFrame)(component);
Container cp = frame.getContentPane();
contentPane = new AContainer(cp);
// getContentPane = new AContainer.ContainerAccessor(cp);
}
public AFrame() {
this("AJava Window");
}
public static class Show {}
public react(Show cmd) { frame.show(); }
public static class Hide {}
public react(Hide cmd) { frame.hide(); }
public static class SetCloseOperation {
// window constants
public static final int DO_NOTHING_ON_CLOSE = WindowConstants.DO_NOTHING_ON_CLOSE;
public static final int EXIT_ON_CLOSE = WindowConstants.EXIT_ON_CLOSE;
public static final int HIDE_ON_CLOSE = WindowConstants.HIDE_ON_CLOSE;
// operation to set to
public int op;
public SetCloseOperation(int op) {
this.op = op;
}
}
public react (SetCloseOperation s) {
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(s.op);
}
}