The Uflow Computational Model and Intermediate Format

This report motivates and defines a general-purpose, architecture independent, parallel computational model, which captures the intuitions which underlie the design of the United Functions and Objects programming language. The model has two aspects, which turn out to be a traditional dataflow model and an actor-like model, with a very simple interface between the two. Certain aspects of the model, particularly strictness, maximum parallelism, and lack of suspension are stressed. The implications of introducing stateful objects are carefully spelled out. The model has several purposes, although we largely describe it as it would be used for visualising the execution of programs. The model is embodied in a textual intermediate format, and in a set of UFO data structures. This report also serves as a definition of the intermediate format, and gives a brief overview of the data structures. 1 Introduction This report serves two purposes. Firstly, in sections 1 to 9, the Uflow computational..