(20) A Pattern-Oriented Visual Parallel Programming Environment

We are now developing a visual parallel programming environment KLIEG, in which a parallel program is developed by editing visuals (e.g., icons representing processes and lines representing streams) on the screen and will be executed after being translated into KL1 codes. The execution process is animated by the KLIEG tracer. The most significant feature of the KLIEG environment is a support for pattern-oriented parallel programming. Syntactically, a pattern is a process diagram with some unspecified portions. Semantically, a pattern keeps design information, which is useful not only for software engineering purposes but also for visualization of parallel program execution and run-time resource allocations. Basically a pattern is defined by an expert designer and used later by (possibly novice) programmers. The KLIEG provides a neat graphical user interface both for designers and programmers.