James C. Browne

Abstract

Visual programming arguably provides greater benefit in explicit parallel programming, particularly coarse grain MIMD programming, than in sequential programming. Explicitly parallel programs are multi-dimensional objects; the natural representations of a parallel program are annotated directed graphs: data flow graphs, control flow graphs, etc. where the nodes of the graphs are sequential computations. The execution of parallel programs is a directed graph of instances of sequential computations. A visually based (directed graph) representation of parallel programs is thus more natural than a pure text string language where multi-dimensional structures must be implicitly defined. The naturalness of the annotated directed graph representation of parallel programs enables methods for programming and debugging which are qualitatively different and arguably superior to the conventional practice based on pure text string languages. Annotation of the graphs is a critical element of a practi...