Need for common programming platform
Description:
English is one of the most widely used languages in the world with which people from diverse parts of the planet can communicate. The world language is a phenomena of both historical background and current consensus. It serves as a common platform on top of which heterogeneity is hidden. Similarly, this could, and with great demand, to happen in the computing world where exist various kinds of programming languages and a great many chances to communicate. In fact, the need for common programming platform is becoming more and more pressing as a result of increasing demand for concurrent application cooperation, especially over the wide area network. It is not too hard to think of the advantages of having a common platform for all programs just as having a common language for people to speak. In that case, inter process communication would be straightforward, component reuse would prevail, very large scale cross-domain cooperation would be possible... This is a fascinating picture which all computer scientists want to pursue and they are gradually getting to that.
Enablers:
- The need for easier inter process communication
- The need for easier worldwide resouce sharing
- The need for easier programming to utilize distributed resources and communicate between other processes or programs.
- The need to hide heterogeneous natures of underlining hardware and software platforms
Inhibitors:
- Close source software development in some commercial companies
Paradigms:
With common programming platform,inter process communication would be straightforward, component reuse would prevail, very large scale cross-domain cooperation would be possible... Grid computing is trying to offer a tip of an iceberg. It provides a common programming platform as the middleware on top of heterogeneous hardward and software architectures for every program possible. This is a giant step towards the goal of having a world language in the programming world, while leaving existing programming languages and models intact. A seamless integration of more advanced common platform will emerge.
Experts:
Professor Henri Bal, Vrije Unversiteit Amsterdam, http://www.cs.vu.nl/~bal
Professor Ian Foster, University of Chicago, http://www-fp.mcs.anl.gov/~foster/
Dutch grid, http://www.dutchgrid.nl
Gridlab, http://www.gridlab.org
Globus, http://www.globus.org
Global Grid Forum, http://www.ggf.org
Timing:
Common programming platform is developing very fast with the boost of grid technology. Although there were attempts to achieve this in the past, actually nearly every creator of a certain programming language would like his language to become the world language in imagination, we are still not so far away from a good starting point.