AOPL.NET : an actor-oriented parallel language for.NET

Abstract

Compiler technology has changed through the years, and nowadays the most common trend is to develop a compiler that produces code in an intermediate language rather than producing code for a specific machine language. The .NET framework uses this technology to enable the development of machine independent compilers. The .NET framework virtual machine will in turn convert the code generated by these compilers into machine dependent code. The wide variety of languages supported by the .NET framework, are object-oriented. Object-oriented development has gained more popularity than actor-oriented development. This project focuses around the design and implementation of an actor-oriented language. A compiler has also been built that compiles the code of the language and generates .NET byte code that can be used by other .NET languages. The idea of AOPL.NET (Actor-Oriented Parallel Language) was conceptualised, after creating several possible language designs. The language is based on the idea of concurrent actor-oriented programming. A compiler for this language was also implemented successfully. The result of this project is language that fully applies the main concept of the .NET framework; that is, the development of new languages that can make use of the same virtual machine and a common typing system. The sharing of libraries has also been applied as AOPL.NET supports calls from the various libraries within the .NET framework.