Abstract

Contemporary parallel programming languages often provide only few low-level primitives for pairwise communication and synchronization. These primitives are not always suitable for the interactions being programmed. Programming would be easier if it was possible to tailor communication and synchronization mechanisms to fit the needs of the application, much as abstract data types are used to create application-specific data structures and operations. This should also include the possibility of expressing interactions among multiple processes at once. Communicators support this paradigm by creating abstract communication objects that provide a framework for interprocess multiparty interactions. The behavior of these objects is defined in terms of interactions, in which multiple processes can enrole. Interactions are performed when all the roles are filled by ready processes. Nondeterminism is used when the order of interaction performance is immaterial. Interactions can also ...

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