Also, Fortran has long been used for parallel programs (on mainframes). Guy Steele is working on Fortress, and he has some interesting insights on the issue. B

Also, Fortran has long been used for parallel programs (on mainframes). Guy Steele is working on Fortress, and he has some interesting insights on the issue. But I do think that a practical solution will have to rethink not only programming languages, but the concept of programs. It will be made by a young and naive tinkerer, trying to solve a specific problem on actual parallel hardware, not by guys who have been entrenched in the field for decades. So it won't happen til that concrete technology (eg. 100 cores) is widely available. While there may be similarities with functional and object oriented programming (Alan Kay's version), it won't be based on them.