‹Programming› 2019
Mon 1 - Thu 4 April 2019 Genoa, Italy
Thu 4 Apr 2019 15:00 - 15:30 at Paganini - Language Design and Reactivity Chair(s): Guido Salvaneschi

ParaSail is a language specifically designed to simplify the construction of programs that make full, safe use of parallel hardware even while manipulating potentially irregular data structures. As parallel hardware has proliferated, there has been an urgent need for languages that ease the writing of correct parallel programs. ParaSail achieves these goals largely through simplification of the language, rather than by adding numerous rules. In particular, ParaSail eliminates global variables, parameter aliasing, and most significantly, re-assignable pointers. ParaSail has adopted a pointer-free approach to defining complex data structures. Rather than using pointers, ParaSail supports flexible data structuring using expandable (and shrinkable) objects implemented using region-based storage management, along with generalized indexing. By eliminating global variables, parameter aliasing, and pointers, ParaSail reduces the complexity for the programmer, while still allowing ParaSail to provide flexible, pervasive, safe, parallel programming for irregular computations. Perhaps the most interesting discovery in this language development effort, based on over six years of use by the author and a group of ParaSail users, has been that it is possible to simultaneously simplify the language, support parallel programming with advanced data structures, and maintain flexibility and efficiency.

  • Harvard College 1971-1975, AB Summa Cum Laude Chemistry
  • Harvard Radcliffe Student Computing Center 1975-1979, Systems Programmer
  • Intermetrics/AverStar/AverCom 1980-2002, Chief Scientist
  • SofCheck 2002-2011, Founder and CTO
  • AdaCore 2011-present, VP, Director of Language Research, Model-Based Toolset Product Architect

Thu 4 Apr

Displayed time zone: Amsterdam, Berlin, Bern, Rome, Stockholm, Vienna change

14:00 - 15:30
Language Design and ReactivityResearch Papers at Paganini
Chair(s): Guido Salvaneschi TU Darmstadt
14:00
30m
Talk
Distributed Reactive Programming for Reactive Distributed Systems
Research Papers
Florian Myter Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium, Christophe Scholliers Universiteit Gent, Belgium, Wolfgang De Meuter Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Link to publication DOI Pre-print
14:30
30m
Talk
Event Loops as First-Class Values: A Case Study in Pedagogic Language Design
Research Papers
Joe Gibbs Politz University of California San Diego, United States, Benjamin Lerner Northeastern University, United States, Sorawee Porncharoenwase Brown University, United States, Shriram Krishnamurthi Brown University, United States
Link to publication DOI Pre-print
15:00
30m
Talk
ParaSail: A Pointer-Free Pervasively-Parallel Language for Irregular Computations
Research Papers
Tucker Taft AdaCore, United States
Link to publication DOI Pre-print