The architecture of concurrent programs

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1. wglbFeb 2025
   A Discipline of Programming, Dijkstra

   The architecture of Concurrent Programs, Per Brinch Hansen

   Literate programming--see http://www.literateprogramming.com/

   I don't recommend Design Patterns, as these are elements needed if your programming language is inadequate.

   There are many more.

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2. lukegoDec 2023
   The Architecture of Concurrent Programs (his book) is a real treasure. I read that on a tip from Ralph Johnson way back when on the C2 wiki.

   Special purpose operating systems e.g. with disk driver (for input) and a compiler (the application) and a printer driver (for output.)

   Those were the days!

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3. Joker_vDSep 2022
   > "Such a module is called a monitor…” Not a mutex? It literally has the words “mutual exclusion” in it. Is this where Java’s bogus synchronization comes from?

   > Can’t really blame him, literally nobody knew how to do multithreading well before Rust. Even in 2013 your choices were limited to “Erlang” and “suffering”. And in 1978 I’m not sure that anyone even had done enough multiprogramming for practical concerns like that to come up.

   To borrow from the author himself, "omg it's adorable". Per Brinch Hansen invented, named, and implemented this "monitor" concept in 1968 or somewhen about that time and published it in his 1973 book "Operating System Principles" (C.A.R. Hoare would popularize this concept further in his 1974 paper "Monitors: An Operating System Structuring Concept"). This book also describes RC 4000 operating system which, by the way, inspired the whole microkernel research in the 70-ies and 80-ies. By 1978, the same Hansen guy has published another book, "The Architecture of Concurrent Programs", in which he describes both a new language, Concurrent Pascal, and a new microkernel OS called "Solo", implemented entirely in Concurrent Pascal.

   So believe it or not, people did know how to do multithreading stuff way before Rust has graced us all with its existence.

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4. Joker_vDJun 2022
   It's been done way earlier than MSFT's SingularityOS: see e.g. Hansen's book "The Architecture of Concurrent Programs" (from 1977) where he writes an OS in Pascal with exactly this approach to process separation.

   Heck, I'd argue everyone who writes their own toy OS should probably start with this approach and then retrofit memory protection later because it simplifies things tremendously and you get something actually usable much earlier (context switching between is not that hard but it's complicated, especially on x86).

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5. vajrabumSep 2021
   Per Brinch Hansen wrote the first comprehensive textbook on operating systems Operating Systems Principles, and with Tony Hoare was the developer of the monitor concept in operating systems, developed the first implementation of a monitor in Concurrent Pascal which he developed. His book The Architecture of Concurrent Programs included a small operating sytem Solo written in Concurrent Pascal which was likely the first microkernel OS. So a very influential and original computer scientist.
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