Talk:Parallel Virtual Machine

From Parawiki

A bit harsh on PVM

This article, though systematic and well-written, seems unduly harsh. Some of the disadvantages cited seem overstated to me:

• The installation problems might have been particular to the editor's platform (PVM "just worked" -- compiled and installed without a hitch on Linux for x86 and AMD64 platforms).
• The cited limitations of locating binaries via PVM_PATH is trivially avoided by specifying absolute pathnames to user programs.
• The claim of "no further development since 1997" is misleading, as it discounts ports, bugfixes, and usability enhancements like the addition of the PVM_MAX_TASKS control variable. The lack of large sweeping changes in the codebase can be seen as a feature in itself, since it is changes of such magnitude which introduce bugs into an otherwise matured and stable codebase. Though PVM work has slowed, it is still being actively developed.

That having been said, there is another criticism of PVM which can (and should) be included: its lack of thread-safety. Multithreaded programming is becoming increasingly popular and necessary for good performance in modern multiprocessing environments, but PVM breaks when used with multithreaded user code.

If it does not offend, I would like to make additions to most of the sections of this article, not deleting anything Mr. Noto has written, but supplementing it with additional information.

TTK Ciar 18:37, 20 July 2006 (CEST)

Sure, go ahead, its a wiki after all and I am sure the authors will not be offended. Msuess