Design of Multithreaded Software: The Entity-Life Modeling Approach

by Bo I. Sanden

Overview

This book assumes familiarity with threads (in a language such as Ada, C#, or Java) and introduces the entity-life modeling (ELM) design approach for certain kinds of multithreaded software. ELM focuses on "reactive systems," which continuously interact with the problem environment. These "reactive systems" include embedded systems, as well as such interactive systems as cruise controllers and automated teller machines.

Part I covers two fundamentals: program-language thread support and state diagramming. These are necessary for understanding ELM and are provided primarily for reference. Part II covers ELM from different angles. Part III positions ELM relative to other design approaches.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781118102732
Publisher:	Wiley
Publication date:	04/06/2011
Sold by:	JOHN WILEY & SONS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	320
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Bo I. Sandén, PhD, serves as Professor of Computer Science at Colorado Technical University. He has also taught at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. Prior to his teaching career, Dr. Sandén worked at Phillips Elektronikindustrier in Stockholm, Sweden, and has significant professional experience as a systems analyst, project manager, programmer, and consultant. He devotes his research activities primarily to software design and has published extensively on Jackson system development, concurrency in Ada and Java, and entity-life modeling.

Table of Contents

Foreword.

Preface.

I Foundations.

1 Introduction.

1.1 Entity-Life Modeling.

1.2 Overview of This Book.

1.3 Multithreading.

1.4 Engineering the Intangible.

1.5 The Development Process.

1.6 Unifi ed Modeling Language.

1.7 Conclusion.

2 Support for Multithreading.

2.1 Introduction.

2.2 Concurrency in Java.

2.3 Concurrency in Ada.

2.4 Pthreads.

2.5 Conclusion.

3 State Modeling.

3.1 Introduction.

3.2 State-Modeling Terminology.

3.3 Basic State Modeling.

3.4 Superstates.

3.5 Examples.

3.6 State Modeling in Practice.

3.7 State Machine Implementation.

3.8 Conclusion.

II The ELM Way.

4 Entity-Life Modeling.

4.1 Introduction.

4.2 Modeling Software on Event Threads.

4.3 Discovering and Choosing Event-Thread Models.

4.4 Event-Thread Patterns for Resource Sharing.

*4.5 Portraying the World in Software.

4.6 Conclusion.

5 Design Patterns Based on Event Threads.

5.1 Introduction.

5.2 State Machines without Software activities.

5.3 Sequential-Activities Design Pattern.

5.4 Concurrent-Activities Design Pattern.

5.5 Communicating State Machines.

5.6 Conclusion.

6 Event-Thread Patterns for Resource Sharing.

6.1 Introduction.

6.2 Resource-User-Thread Pattern.

6.3 The Resource-Guard-Thread Pattern.

6.4 Choosing and Combining Patterns.

6.5 Examples with Dual Solutions.

6.6 Data Stream Processing.

6.7 Repository Problems.

6.8 Conclusion.

7 Simultaneous Exclusive Access to Multiple Resources.

7.1 Introduction.

7.2 The Deadlock Problem.

7.3 Case Studies.

7.4 Heuristics.

7.5 More on Deadlock and Its Prevention.

7.6 Conclusion.

III Background and Discussion.

8 Real-Time Software Architectures and Data-Flow Design Approaches.

8.1 Introduction.

8.2 Real-Time Architectures.

8.3 Data-Flow Design Approaches.

8.4 Conclusion.

9 The Origins of Entity-Life Modeling.

9.1 Introduction.

9.2 Early Experiences with Software Development.

9.3 The Jackson Methods.

9.3.1.4 Structure Clashes.

*9.4 Formal Models and Methods.

9.5 Software Patterns.

9.6 Conclusion.

Glossary.

References.

Index.