Toward a method of object-oriented concurrent programming
Denis Caromel · Communications of the ACM · 1993
hile there have been many attempts to provide objectoriented languages with a model of concurrency, few have dealt with reusability and methodology.Here we propose a concurrent model that takes into account such important concerns.Concept unifications are a necessity, and underlie the need to make object-oriented programming adaptable to concurrency.The model characteristics, especially reusability, permit definition of a concurrent object-oriented design method.The model, which makes extensive use of objectoriented techniques such as inheritance and polymorphism, is presented followed by development of the concurrent programming method.A real-time example of an automotive cruise control system illustrates and exercises the method. Model of ConcurrencyOur model of concurrency relies on a small set of basic concepts, which are often continuations of those existing in sequential programming--our focus is on such a unification of concepts.The concepts and ideas detailed here have been implemented as an extension of Eiffel I [1, 20,21] which is named Eiffel//.The first choice encountered when designing a concurrent langnage is the.' process genesis: what language construct and concept permit the process definition?One of the "breakthrough,;" of object-oriented programming is the unification of module and type aspects into one construct: the class.When it comes to adding parallelism, another unification is to bring together the concepts of class and process