From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: ron minnich To: 9fans@cse.psu.edu Subject: Re: [9fans] parallel programming in Plan 9 In-Reply-To: Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Date: Thu, 19 Feb 2004 07:35:04 -0700 Topicbox-Message-UUID: eda6e042-eacc-11e9-9e20-41e7f4b1d025 For grid, David Abrahamson tells us that the users want a simple open/read/write/close interface for their apps. They want to name and open net connections with the same ease that they name and open files. They want to substitute files for net connections for testing. They don't want to have to use gridFTP or similar kludges for getting to files; they want the files to be accessible whereever they are. They have no particular love of complex components and C++. These user wants are of course in complete opposition to what CS people want to provide for the grid. "I'm from the CS dept. and I'm here to help". When we looked at what the users wanted, as opposed to what the CS researchers were planning to provide, we realized that Plan 9 fit the user needs for Grid very well indeed, which is what got us started trying to build the 9grid in the first place. Don't assume that because MPI is ubiquotous that everyone wants it either. They just assume that it's all they are going to get. Personally, I don't exactly love MPI. For on-machine cases, rfork with RFMEM will get you pretty far for parallel programming. See the 'cpu' command for an example of using shared-memory semaphores. ron