Using wrappers to simplify task parallel programming

A preliminary version of this material was presented as a poster entitled "Accessible parallel programming in Java" at the 4th NSF/TCPP Workshop on Parallel and Distributed Computing Education (EduPar), 2014.

Materials related to this paper:

• Preliminary version as a PDF. © CCSC, (2014). This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of CCSC for your personal use. Not for redistribution. The definitive version will be published in the Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges, http://dl.acm.org/.
• Given code:
  • README file
  • Wrapper classes (files in package SimpleExecutor):
    • Entire package in a zip file
    • SimpleExecutor.java
    • SimpleFuture.java
    • SimpleTask.java
  • Given code for heat simulator (in package SerialHeat); parallel versions available to instructors by request.
    • All given code in zip file
    • DataArray.java
    • GUI.java
  • Everything together

Abstract:

Teaching parallel programming principles to inexperienced students is challenging because they have difficulty identifying and focusing on the key ideas. With this in mind, we present a simplified interface for the executor framework built into Java. The interface hides configuration choices and complicated features, leaving students with a simple work queue into which they can insert tasks. We also evaluate our interface with a visually-interesting sample problem (heat diffusion), which we provide as a sample assignment.