research-article

Comparing the usability of library vs. language approaches to task parallelism

Authors:

Zoran Budimlić,

Vivek SarkarAuthors Info & Claims

PLATEAU '10: Evaluation and Usability of Programming Languages and Tools

Article No.: 9, Pages 1 - 6

https://doi.org/10.1145/1937117.1937126

Published: 17 October 2010 Publication History

Abstract

In this paper, we compare the usability of a library approach with a language approach to task parallelism. There are many practical advantages and disadvantages to both approaches. A key advantage of a library-based approach is that it can be deployed without requiring any change in the tool chain, including compilers and IDEs. However, the use of library APIs to express all aspects of task parallelism can lead to code that is hard to understand and modify. A key advantage of a language-based approach is that the intent of the programmer is easier to express and understand, both by other programmers and by program analysis tools. However, a language-based approach usually requires the standardization of new constructs and (possibly) of new keywords. In this paper, we compare the java.util.concurrent (j.u.c) library [14] from Java 7 and the Habanero-Java (HJ) [16] language, supported by our experiences in teaching both models at Rice University.

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Cited By

Rennels LChasins S(2023)How Domain Experts Use an Embedded DSLProceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages10.1145/36228517:OOPSLA2(1499-1530)Online publication date: 16-Oct-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3622851
Bliudze SMavridou ASzymanek RZolotukhina A(2017)Exogenous coordination of concurrent software components with JavaBIPSoftware: Practice and Experience10.1002/spe.249547:11(1801-1836)Online publication date: 3-Apr-2017
https://doi.org/10.1002/spe.2495
Olsson RWilliamson T(2016)RJSoftware—Practice & Experience10.1002/spe.233046:5(685-708)Online publication date: 1-May-2016
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1002/spe.2330
Show More Cited By

Index Terms

Comparing the usability of library vs. language approaches to task parallelism
1. Software and its engineering
  1. Software notations and tools
    1. General programming languages
    2. Software libraries and repositories

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cover image ACM Conferences

PLATEAU '10: Evaluation and Usability of Programming Languages and Tools

October 2010

51 pages

ISBN:9781450305471

DOI:10.1145/1937117

Copyright © 2010 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Published: 17 October 2010

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SPLASH '10: Systems Programming Languages and Applications: Software for Humanity

October 17 - 21, 2010

Nevada, Reno

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Overall Acceptance Rate 5 of 8 submissions, 63%

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Cited By

Rennels LChasins S(2023)How Domain Experts Use an Embedded DSLProceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages10.1145/36228517:OOPSLA2(1499-1530)Online publication date: 16-Oct-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3622851
Bliudze SMavridou ASzymanek RZolotukhina A(2017)Exogenous coordination of concurrent software components with JavaBIPSoftware: Practice and Experience10.1002/spe.249547:11(1801-1836)Online publication date: 3-Apr-2017
https://doi.org/10.1002/spe.2495
Olsson RWilliamson T(2016)RJSoftware—Practice & Experience10.1002/spe.233046:5(685-708)Online publication date: 1-May-2016
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1002/spe.2330
Imam SSarkar VKolodziej JChilders B(2014)Habanero-Java libraryProceedings of the 2014 International Conference on Principles and Practices of Programming on the Java platform: Virtual machines, Languages, and Tools10.1145/2647508.2647514(75-86)Online publication date: 23-Sep-2014
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2647508.2647514
Marowka A(2014)Towards Standardization of Measuring the Usability of Parallel LanguagesParallel Processing and Applied Mathematics10.1007/978-3-642-55195-6_6(65-74)Online publication date: 8-May-2014
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-55195-6_6
Shirako JSharma KSarkar V(2011)Unifying barrier and point-to-point synchronization in OpenMP with phasersProceedings of the 7th international conference on OpenMP in the Petascale era10.5555/2023025.2023038(122-137)Online publication date: 13-Jun-2011
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.5555/2023025.2023038
Marlow SNewton RPeyton Jones S(2011)A monad for deterministic parallelismACM SIGPLAN Notices10.1145/2096148.203468546:12(71-82)Online publication date: 22-Sep-2011
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2096148.2034685
Cavé VZhao JShirako JSarkar VProbst CWimmer C(2011)Habanero-JavaProceedings of the 9th International Conference on Principles and Practice of Programming in Java10.1145/2093157.2093165(51-61)Online publication date: 24-Aug-2011
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2093157.2093165
Marlow SNewton RPeyton Jones SClaessen K(2011)A monad for deterministic parallelismProceedings of the 4th ACM symposium on Haskell10.1145/2034675.2034685(71-82)Online publication date: 22-Sep-2011
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2034675.2034685
Dennis JGao GMeng X(2011)Experiments with the Fresh Breeze tree-based memory modelComputer Science - Research and Development10.1007/s00450-011-0165-126:3-4(325-337)Online publication date: 1-Jun-2011
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/s00450-011-0165-1

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