A Distributed Dynamic Architecture for Task Oriented Programming

Abstract

Task Oriented Programming (TOP) is a special flavor of functional programming for real-world application domains in which people and automated systems collaborate to achieve a common goal. The original iTasks framework, which implements TOP, uses a single server multi-client architecture. This is not suited for truly distributed application domains, such as deployed by the Dutch coast guard. In this paper we show how to turn this architecture into a distributed, dynamic, architecture. This is done in an elegant way, by building on the core concepts of TOP and iTasks. CCS CONCEPTS • Software and its engineering → Functional languages; • Computer systems organization → Distributed architectures; • Human-centered computing → Computer supported cooperative work;

Could Tierless Languages Reduce IoT Development Grief?

“…Thereafter a sensor node can dynamically receive mTask programs, compiled at runtime by the server. In Clean with iTask the sensor node runs an iTask server that recieves and executes code from the (IoT) server [54].…”

“…That is, from a single TOP program the language implementation automatically generates an integrated distributed system. Application areas range from simple web forms or blinking LEDs to multi-user distributed collaboration between people and machines [54].…”

“…Communication from the sensor node to the server is implicit and happens via SDSs over TCP using platform independent execution graph serialisation [54].…”

Task Oriented Programming and the Internet of Things

“…A natural way of adding clients to a server in iTasks is to use the distributed extension. Oortgiese et al lifted iTasks from a single server model to a distributed server architecture [Oortgiese et al 2017]. For example, Android apps can be created that run an entire iTasks core and are able to receive tasks from a different server and execute them.…”

Assisting End Users in Workflow Systems

“…The most used TOP implementation is iTasks (Plasmeijer, Lijnse, Michels, Achten, & Koopman, 2012). It has been subject of study for many years (P. Koopman, Lubbers, & Plasmeijer, 2018; P. W. M. Koopman, Plasmeijer, & Achten, 2008;Oortgiese, van Groningen, Achten, & Plasmeijer, 2017;Plasmeijer et al, 2011;Stutterheim, Achten, & Plasmeijer, 2017), and has been used to implement several systems for the Netherlands Royal Navy and the Dutch coast guard (Lijnse, Jansen, & Plasmeijer, 2012;Stutterheim, Achten, & Plasmeijer, 2016).…”