A survey of concurrent object-oriented languages

During the last decade object-oriented programming has grown from marginal influence into widespread acceptance. During the same period, progress in h ardware and networking has changed the computing environment from sequentia l to parallel. Multi-processor workstations and clusters are now quite comm on. Unnumbered proposals have been made to combine both developments. Always: t he prime objective has been to provide the advantages of object-oriented so ftware design at the increased power of parallel machines. However, combini ng both concepts has proven to be notoriously difficult. Depending on the a pproach, often key characteristics of either the object-oriented paradigm o r key performance factors of parallelism are sacrificed, resulting in unsat isfactory languages. This survey first recapitulates well-known characteristics of both the obje ct-oriented paradigm and parallel programming, and then marks out the desig n space of possible combinations by identifying various interdependencies o f key concepts. The design space is then filled with data points: for 111 p roposed languages we provide brief characteristics and feature tables. Feat ure tables, the comprehensive bibliography, and web-addresses might help in identifying open questions and preventing re-inventions. Copyright (C) 200 0 John Wiley & Suns, Ltd.