linsimpy

Linda process coordination on the simpy discrete event simulation framework.

Linda is a long forgotten coordination language which at one point competed conceptually with MPI. It is based on a bulletin-board like tuple-space, not unlike a NoSQL database in the style of associative memory, but which also hosts processes. It does not stand up to today's approaches for engineering distributed systems, but is great for modelling natural systems.

Software compatibility

Requires:

• python3+ (tested on 3.8 only to date)
• simpy

Installation

Check it out:

$ git clone https://github.com/robwalton/linsimpy.git
Cloning into 'linsimpy'...

Try it out

This demo should abstract env away by using ts.eval() to spawn processes. It also highlights that linsimpy needs a more clearly defined relationship with simpy.

Running:

import linsimpy
tse = linsimpy.TupleSpaceEnvironment()
print()

def producer():
    yield tse.timeout(1)
    print(f"(1, 2) added at time {tse.now}")
    yield tse.out((1, 2))

    yield tse.timeout(1)
    print(f"('three', 4) added at time {tse.now}")
    yield tse.out(('three', 4))

    return 'process can return something'

def consumer():
    val = yield tse.in_(('three', int))
    print(f"{val} removed at time {tse.now}")

    val = yield tse.in_((object, 2))
    print(f"{val} removed at time {tse.now}")

tse.eval(('producer_process', producer()))
tse.eval(('consumer_process', consumer()))
tse.run()
assert tse.now == 2
print(tse.items)

prints:

(1, 2) added at time 1
('three', 4) added at time 2
('three', 4) removed at time 2
(1, 2) removed at time 2
[('another tuple', 5, 6), ('producer_process', 'process can return something'), ('consumer_process', None)]

Monitoring

If following simpy's instructions for patching Environment() to add event tracing, do so on the simpy.Environment instance wrapped by TupleSpaceEnvironment. This is done my passing a patched instance of Environment to TupleSpaceEnvironment during initiation.

Testing

Running the tests requires the pytest package.

From the root package folder call:

$ pytest
...

Licensing

The code and the documentation are released under the MIT and Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial licences respectively. See LICENCE.md for details.

TODO

• Package up
• Add instructions for setting random seed to guarantee order
• Possibly allow predicate functions as elements of search patterns. Adds no functionality but could help with conception, but does allow speed up if function calls are long as they may not need to be evaluated. Could help in the future if we add delays to gets().
• Optimise tuple searching. It is currently O(n). Suggestions from lindypy. Wrap or extend Store of FilterStore to create TupleStore:
  • Keep a dict of tuples indexed by id. On put() assign tuple an id and add to this. (Note that this may require extension of Store rather than filterStore.)
  • Keep a column_index dict of sets indexed by tuple length. On put() put id in appropriate set.
  • Keep structure X comprised of: a list indexed by tuple element index holding dicts indexed by column value holding sets containing ids for each tuple. On put() add an entry for each element of the tuple.
  • on get(pattern) call onto a method that finds up to a certain number for future proofing. This:
    • return [] if length not length_index
    • take set of candidates from length_index
    • for each element in the pattern
      • if type: compile a list of type checks for wildcards
      • if iterable: optionally compile a list of predicate functions to test final candidates with.
      • else its a value:
        • if value not in column_index return []
        • trim the set of candidates by intersecting with set from structure X.
        • return [] if candidates is empty
    • return [] if candidates is empty (necessary?)
    • for each candidate
      • fetch the tuple from tuple_index
• Create RealtimeTupleSpaceEnvironment
• Create a production, rather than DSE, tuple-store that spawns new processes. Possibly run on PyPy to get around GIL. It may be that going from Linda toys to production that it would best to switch technology and/or coordination paradigm