BALL-MAZE BLOCK DIAGRAM FOR CONCURRENT PROGRAMMING
Keywords:
Concurrent Programming, Code Development, Computer Science, Graphical RepresentationAbstract
Knowing that flowchart and pseudocode have their own strengths and weaknesses for explicit concurrency, this paper extends the Ball-Maze block diagram, previously developed for sequential program, to combine the advantages of the two for concurrent programming in the context where multiple process can start, run and end in overlapping time periods. The objective of this paper is not to design OS or RTOS but to work on diagramming tools on the program logic as a way to graphically describe the explicit program concurrency and systematically generate source code to meet multitasking requirements. The generated code is suitable to be executed on single processor/controller where third-party OS, RTOS or compilers to support program concurrency is not required. Concurrent version of Ball-Maze block diagram is introduced and practical example is presented to demonstrate its application to represent concurrent flow of the program using new elements such as fork, join and switch, wait blocks etc. Finally, simple and systematic approach of code construction from the Ball-Maze block diagram is demonstrated. It is shown that the generated code is in standard and easy-to-implement structure
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