Cognitive Aspects of Parallel Programming

并行编程的认知方面

• 批准号: RGPIN-2018-04811
• 负责人: Aubanel, Eric
• 金额: $ 1.68万
• 依托单位: University of New Brunswick
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2018-01-01 至 2019-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=644279
• 关键词: Cognitive; Aspects; Parallel; Programming

Parallel computing involves solving a computing problem in less time by breaking it down in parts and computing those parts simultaneously. The hardware required for parallel processing hardware continues to progress rapidly, enabling ever-increasing theoretical operation counts per second. However, it is well known that parallel programming systems haven't kept up with the advances in hardware: while hundreds of parallel languages have been proposed, very few have taken hold beyond the language developers themselves. One reason for this is usability - that is the degree of ease with which one can develop and maintain parallel programs that are both correct and reach the desired level of performance. ******The current body of knowledge of parallel programming usability is very limited, both in the number of contributions and the methodology of the studies. A major limitation of existing studies is that they are not based on a theoretical framework. This means that while they may be able to determine if one language is better than another in a particular experimental context, it is difficult to apply the results more generally. Writing a program involves more than just syntactic and semantic knowledge. It also involves schematic knowledge, which consists of generic solutions, as shown in studies of the cognitive processes of program design. Writing programs is also intimately tied to understanding programs, since schemas can be learned by reading programs, and practical programming often involves modifying existing programs. Program understanding requires the reader to construct a mental model. These theories of program design and understanding have been applied to procedural and object oriented programming but not to parallel programming.******The long-term research goal of this proposal is to discover the cognitive models and processes used by parallel programmers, and how these depend on the programming language. This work will extend the current body of knowledge on the psychology of programming, which has only been applied to sequential programming. This work will have important applications to assessing the usability of parallel programming languages, designing supporting tools, and the teaching of parallel programming. ******The proposed research builds on my graduate textbook, Elements of Parallel Computing, published in 2017 by Chapman and Hall/CRC Press, in their Computational Science series. This book presents the algorithmic and implementation structures that are practically relevant for parallel programming. Such structures have endured through many changes in parallel hardware and software. The proposed work will investigate how these structures form part of the mental models that parallel programmers use when writing and understanding programs.

并行计算涉及通过将计算问题分解为多个部分并同时计算这些部分来在更短的时间内解决计算问题。并行处理硬件所需的硬件继续快速发展，使每秒理论运算次数不断增加。然而，众所周知，并行编程系统并没有跟上硬件的进步：虽然已经提出了数百种并行语言，但只有很少几种语言能够超越语言开发人员本身。 其中一个原因是可用性-即开发和维护并行程序的容易程度，这些程序既正确又达到所需的性能水平。** 目前并行编程可用性的知识体系非常有限，无论是在贡献的数量还是研究的方法上。现有研究的一个主要局限是它们没有基于理论框架。这意味着，虽然他们可能能够在特定的实验环境中确定一种语言是否优于另一种语言，但很难将结果更普遍地应用。编写程序不仅仅涉及语法和语义知识。它还涉及图式知识，其中包括通用的解决方案，如程序设计的认知过程的研究所示。编写程序也与理解程序密切相关，因为模式可以通过阅读程序来学习，而实际编程通常涉及修改现有程序。程序理解需要读者构建一个心智模型。这些程序设计和理解的理论已经应用于过程式和面向对象的编程，但不适用于并行编程。该提案的长期研究目标是发现并行程序员使用的认知模型和过程，以及这些模型和过程如何依赖于编程语言。这项工作将扩展目前的知识体系的心理学编程，这只适用于顺序编程。这项工作将有重要的应用程序，以评估并行编程语言的可用性，设计支持工具，并行编程的教学。** 拟议的研究建立在我的研究生教科书，并行计算的元素，出版于2017年由查普曼和霍尔/CRC出版社，在他们的计算科学系列。这本书提出了算法和实现结构，实际上是相关的并行编程。这种结构经历了并行硬件和软件的许多变化。拟议的工作将调查这些结构如何形成并行程序员在编写和理解程序时使用的心理模型的一部分。