An Open Implementation Analysis and Design for Lightweight Threads

Abstract

Open Implementation Analysis and Design (OIA/D) has been introduced as a design methodology for object-oriented software systems, and in particular for substrate software. In this paper we detail our experiences with using OIA/D to design and implement a common substrate component for parallel language runtime systems: a lightweight threads package. We show how existing thread packages employ a "black-box" design, hiding crucial design decisions that drastically reduce their ability to be re-used. We detail these design decisions (dilemmas) and show how an implementation based on OIA/D principles results in a thread package that is flexible, efficient, portable, and re-usable.