Re: Dynamic Priority

[Richard Beton <rdb@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Adrian Lawrence wrote:

> <snip>  ...  I suggest SATISFIES.
> Thus: PAR can have an annotation like
>
> PAR(SATISFIES PRED1, PRED2,...)
>
> This asks the compiler to build a refinement of PAR that satisfies the
> list of predicates. We will need to find a stylised form to express
> feasible predicates. That way we can still prove theorems at the existing
> CSPP level, but we ought to be able to use the predicates as well.
>
> OK. Over to the compiler writers. Implementation please. :-)
>
> Again, just flying a kite in the water.

We have gradually accreted quite a substantial bag of suggested alterations to
occam that, together, make it rather more of a new language than just a proposed
new version of a language. Somewhere, if I rummaged around emails of a year or
two back, I might still have the earlier discussions on occam (mostly to do with
software engineering aspects).

Whilst Adrian's copious ideas keep us all interested, it has to be said that
without tools keeping up with the ideas, the ideas are likely to remain just as
ideas. I've grown a little cynical because tool development has consistently not
kept up (and that's not a criticism of those who have worked on the tools, just
an observation of the lack of resource.)

In an ideal world, I'd like a dynamic and modular occam4 to have compiler
switches to enforce the old static model. I'd like the compiler to do more work
on memory allocation etc etc. I'd still like occam's razor to apply, but I'd like
extensibility of feature sets to be provided by some meta-language by which the
compiler understands the rules it has to apply to ensure my programs are correct.
Of course, the rich occam4 APIs and robust IDEs are taken for granted. I dream
on...   :-)

Rick
--
Richard Beton B.Sc. C.Phys. M.Inst.P.
Roke Manor Research Limited (http://www.roke.co.uk/)
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