

Ask HN: What's the classic work on dataflow programming? - gruseom

There is a huge literature on dataflow programming, starting from around 1970. On the assumption that some of this work must be interesting, I've made several attempts to find the good stuff. Surprisingly, everything I've found so far is lame: very hand-wavey and presenting no compelling results. Most of it falls into one of two categories: (1) pictures consisting of boxes and lines connecting the boxes; (2) references to obscure languages that supposedly implemented dataflow principles, without saying anything substantial about either the principles or how they were implemented.<p>Am I looking in the wrong places? Or was this really a huge research dead-end? Can anyone point me to some worthwhile material?
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setori88
check out a decent implementation of dataflow in mozart/oz there are papers on
the site that describe the rational behind it. Dead end - I believe certainly
not. This is just beginning. Also read 'concepts, techniques and models of
computer programming' by peter von roy and seif haridi That book will show you
exactly how to make sense of dataflow and where its correct place is.

if you look at the oz kernel code there you can see how it was implemented
very clearly. The book holds your hand right through the whole process of
setting up dataflow in a (kernel) programming language.

