The message passing (MP) paradigm is often seen as a superior alternative to the typical mix of idioms in concurrent (shared-memory, locks) and distributed programming (CORBA/RMI). MP eliminates worries endemic to the shared-memory mindset: lock ordering, failure-coupling, low-level data races and memory models. It simplifies synchronization between data and control planes (no lost signals or updates), and unifies APIs for local and remote process interaction. Curiously however, there are no efficient frameworks for intra-process message-passing, except for Erlang. This talk describes a Java framework called “Kilim” to fix this state of affairs.
