GoingDeep: aestro: A Managed Domain Specific Language For Concurrent Programming

Josh Phillips(PM), Niklas Gustafsson(Architect), and Artur Laksberg(Developer) of the Parallel Computing Platform Team spend some time with me to discuss a managed (.NET-based) DSL (Domain Specific Language) for concurrent programming, Maestro. Maestro incorporates well-entrenched language patterns (imperative, OO, C style syntax, etc) and language constructs (channels, agents, domains) in a compelling way to make concurrent composition more accessible and familiar to the legions of sequential code composers.

Here we dig into the architecture and design of the Maestro language and compiler as well as discuss the philosophy behind this incubation project (at this point in time there are no plans to release Maestro as a product - it's a research project, an incubation...). Why create another language to help solve the Concurrency Problem? What's the advantage over implementing a library (this is .NET after all -> CLR + BCL = most of the power of the platform)? There's obviously good reasons for implementig Maestro as a language, but you'll need to watch and listen to find out.

Enjoy.