Visual Parallel Programming

The aim of this dissertation was to demonstrate that using visual parallel programming languages can provide natural and intuitive representations of the parallel applications in order to assist programmers and make parallel programming more accessible. The approach taken was to define a new visual parallel programming language, called Vidim, based on the partitioned global address space (PGAS) programming model. By visualising different aspects of the parallel program and providing graphical controls through which the programmer to define them, Vidim aims to allow inexperienced parallel programmers to quickly develop working parallel code. An end-to-end system was developed to enable application development in Vidim. It provides a visual interface through which programmers can implement parallel applications in Vidim and a translation tool, which turns the program into an executable. As an intermediate representation, the system uses Mesham textual code, which allows it to use the existing Mesham compiler to produce the executable. Two parallel case studies, Prime Factorisation and Mandelbrot Set, were implemented using the Vidim system and compared against their implementations in other parallel programming frameworks. It was demonstrated that Vidim’s visualisations provided simple and clear mechanisms for developing the parallel aspects of the cases studies.