2 posts tagged with "distributed async await"

As software engineers, we are familiar with a range of programming models, for example imperative, functional, declarative, or object-oriented programming. These paradigms are tools in our toolbelt, each influencing our approach to solving problems.

At Resonate HQ, we are building a novel programming model, Distributed Async Await. Distributed Async Await extends async await beyond the boundaries of a single process, making distributed computing a first-class citizen.

So in this blog post, we will address the question "What is a programming model?"

Programming Model​

A programming model or programming paradigm is a conceptual framework that guides and constrains how we think about problems and their solutions.

Like any conceptual framework, a programming model is a set of concepts, relationships among these concepts, and constraints on the relationships. For example, in object-oriented programming, core concepts are Classes and Inheritance relationships between Classes. Inheritance relationships are constrained to form a directed acyclic graph.

When choosing an object oriented programming language, this framework is the lense through which we reason about problems and their solutions. In the context of object oriented languages, the lens even has a name: the lens through which we view problems is called object oriented analysis and the lens through which we view solutions is called object oriented design.

Beyond Programming Languages​

However, a programming model is not only defined by a programming language but by the totality of the environment. Libraries, frameworks, and platforms have the ability to change the set of concepts, relationships, and contstraints.

For example, even when writing object oriented programs, your programs change significantly when you add threads. Your programs do not stop being object oriented programs, but they start to become concurrent programs, a change that forces you to think about problems and solutions differently than before.

Even seemingly small changes can have big impacts. For example, adding retries in case of failure changes the execution semantics from at most once to at least once, requiring you to look at the problem and the solution in a different light. Now you have to ensure that all of your functions are idempotent to guarantee correctness.

Distributed Async Await​

Resonate's vision is to provide a programming model for distributed applications that not only meets technical demands but provides a delightful developer experience based on traditional async await.

Async await is a programing model that allows the developer to express the concurrent structure of function executions. In effect, async await allows the developer to express concurrency and coordination on one machine.

Distributed Async Await is a programing model that extends async await and allows the developer to express the distributed structure of function executions. In effect, Distributed Async Await allows the developer to express concurrency and coordination across machines.

By extending instead of replacing async await, we've created an incremental transition from the world of concurrent programming models into the world of distributed programming models. You don't have to rewire your brain, instead you can build on your knowledge and experience to extend your horizon.

🏴‍☠️

Software engineers are getting crushed by the complexity of distributed systems. Engineers waste time writing boilerplate code for retries, recovery, rate limiting, and observability yet still applications break in production.

Why? Traditional programming models were not designed for the unique challenges of distributed applications.

Resonate's programming model, Distributed Async Await, extends the widely popular async await programming model and goes beyond the boundaries of a single process, making distributed computing a first-class citizen.

Design Principles​

Resonate's vision is to provide a programming model for distributed applications that not only meets technical demands but provides a delightful developer experience. After all, who doesn't want to be delighted?

Async await provides a delightful developer experience when we need to express concurrency and coordination in a single process. Launching hundreds or thousands of concurrent tasks and collecting their results can be done in just a few lines of code. But across multiple machines? Async await's previously delightful developer experience quickly becomes dreadful, a few lines of code turn into a never ending nightmare.

What happened? Well, async await was designed to make concurrent programming simple, async await was not designed to make distributed programming simple.

A delightful developer experience makes a task at hand Dead Simple. At Resonate that's not just a catch phrase but the bedrock of our engineering philosophy, and grounded in our principles.

• 🏴‍☠️ A Dead Simple programming model should be built with a minimal set of abstractions; those abstractions should be as general as possible so they can be uniformly applied in all areas.

• 🏴‍☠️ A Dead Simple programming model should be comprehensible to a single software engineer with minimal overhead.

A consistent abstraction lays the foundation for building applications of any scale, from the smallest to the largest, from the most simple to the most complex. This uniformity guarantees consistency and predictability at every step. If any part of the programming model works differently from the rest, that part will require additional effort to comprehend.

Therefore, a programming model with a delightful developer experience not only implies a programming model that is Dead Simple to use but also Dead Simple to understand.

Distributed Async Await​

Based on these principles, we designed Distributed Async Await to be an extension of the traditional async await programming model.

Like traditional async await, Distributed Async Await is built on the concept of functions and promises, the universal abstractions to express concurrency, coordination, and integration. Distributed Async Await elevates the traditional paradigm beyond the boundaries of a single process, making distributed computing a first-class citizen

By extending instead of replacing async await, we've created an incremental transition from the world of concurrent programming into the world of distributed programming. You don't have to rewire your brain, instead you can build on your knowledge and experience to extend your horizon.

🏴‍☠️