Comments on: The network is the network, the computer is the computer - sorry about the confusion http://joemorrison.org/blog/2007/09/30/the-network-is-the-network-the-computer-is-the-computer-sorry-about-the-confusion/ How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Writing Software Sat, 13 Mar 2010 16:02:21 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7.1 hourly 1 By: Kalani http://joemorrison.org/blog/2007/09/30/the-network-is-the-network-the-computer-is-the-computer-sorry-about-the-confusion/comment-page-1/#comment-9 Kalani Mon, 01 Oct 2007 15:43:47 +0000 http://joemorrison.org/blog/2007/09/30/the-network-is-the-network-the-computer-is-the-computer-sorry-about-the-confusion/#comment-9 This reminds me of the debate in the concurrent programming language community about whether or not synchronous message passing is the right default. Most early formalisms (like Hoare's CSP and Milner's provocatively named <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pi-calculus" rel="nofollow">pi-calculus</a>) chose synchronous behavior. In contrast, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Actor_model" rel="nofollow">the Actor model</a> makes asynchronous message passing primitive -- and it's the basis for some very successful modern languages (like Erlang and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apama" rel="nofollow">Apama</a>). I think you're right that this is going to be an interesting area to watch for library (e.g. Google Gears) and language support in the next few years. This reminds me of the debate in the concurrent programming language community about whether or not synchronous message passing is the right default. Most early formalisms (like Hoare’s CSP and Milner’s provocatively named pi-calculus) chose synchronous behavior. In contrast, the Actor model makes asynchronous message passing primitive — and it’s the basis for some very successful modern languages (like Erlang and Apama).

I think you’re right that this is going to be an interesting area to watch for library (e.g. Google Gears) and language support in the next few years.

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