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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 AOpPad extends AContainer {
protected final GridLayout layout;
protected final ACharButton[] buttons;
public final Event OnClick = new Event();
public AOpPad() {
// create panel
super(new JPanel());
layout = new GridLayout(3,2);
container.setLayout(layout);
buttons = new ACharButton[10];
createButtons();
}
private void createButtons() {
createButton('/');
createButton('*');
createButton('-');
createButton('+');
createButton('^');
createButton('=');
}
private byte index = 0;
private void createButton(char op) {
buttons[index] = new ACharButton(op);
buttons[index].OnClick <-- new Event.Subscribe(OnClick);
buttons[index].OnKeyTyped <-- new Event.Subscribe(OnKeyTyped);
this <-- new AddComponent(buttons[index]);
index++;
}
}