Re: Ada tasking

[kary@hp-lsd.COS.HP.COM (Dan Kary)]

> Why should any language BE concerned with parallelism?
> Ted Holden
> HTE
 
From the first time I read the ARM I've felt that the Ada tasking
model is quite useless for solving real time problems.  However, the 
value of a programming language that is concerned with parallelism
was (and is) immediately obvious.

As computing machinery has become faster and faster, the possibilities
of what can be done with that machinery have grown.  It is becoming
increasingly obvious that physical realities (the speed of electricity,
the length of wires, etc.) will place a bound on what a single machine
may ultimately do.  An equally obvious solution to this limitation is
to use more than one machine to accomplish the desired task.

The problem with using more than one machine to accomplish a single task
is that virtually all problem solving techniques currently used involve
algorithms that presume a single thread of execution.  This is a most
unsurprising state of affairs, given that most machines and programming
languages concern themselves with a single thread of execution.

In order to make the leap to a future where multiple machines work
cooperatively to solve a single problem, the people who program those
machines will have to begin to think about parallel solutions to problems.
A language which presents a model of parallel execution that is free of
machine and operating system dependencies seems to be a useful first step.

Dan Kary