1. Flow-based programming
An overview
VisuFlow Stockholm Meetup #1
Samuel Lampa
@smllmp
+samuellampa
saml.rilspace.org
Developer at
www.uppmax.uu.se
www.farmbio.uu.se
www.rilpartner.se

2. What is this?

3. What is this?
- A call graph! (of my little go app)

4. What if we could take control of this...
…and define the graph declaratively? Wow! :)
qq

5. Invented at the 60's at IBM
q
FBP Inventor J. Paul Morrison

6. The flow based programming book
- A must read
→ tinyurl.com/fbpbook

7. “In computer programming, flow­based
programming (FBP) is a programming
paradigm that defines applications as networks
of "black box" processes, which exchange data
across predefined connections by message
passing, where the connections are specified
externally to the processes. These black box
processes can be reconnected endlessly to
form different applications without having to
be changed internally. FBP is thus naturally
component­oriented”
Wikipedia

8. FBP vs DataFlow
“FBP is a particular form of dataflow
programming based on bounded
buffers, information packets with
defined lifetimes, named ports, and
separate definition of connections.
Wikipedia

9. An array of benefits ...
●
●
●
●
Change of connection wiring
without rewriting
components
Inherently concurrent suited for the multi-core
CPU world!
Testing, monitoring and
logging very easy:
Just plug in a mock-, loggingor debugging component.
Etc.
qq

10. Many similar tools: Unix pipes

11. Many similar tools: LabView

12. Many similar tools: Yahoo Pipes

13. Many similar tools: Apple Quartz Composer

14. Implementations
●
Java (JavaFBP)
●
C# (C#FBP)
●
C++ (Dspatch, Blockie.io)
●
Javascript (NoFlo, Node Red)
●
Go (GoFlow)
●
Python (PaPy)
●
Common lisp
●
Shell script (net2sh)
●
D (Dendrite)
●
…?

15. Resurgence in FBP interest with NoFlo

17. NoFlo creator Henri Bergius

18. NoFlo summary
●
Based on Node.js
●
Written in coffeescript
●
237 reusable components
●
Successful (116% of 100k USD) Kickstarter for
in-browser UI
●
FBP definition format in JSON
●
Proof-of concept:
Re-implementation of Jekyll Static site generator:
16 000 LOC → 107 components
(4 custom ones of ~500 LOC, rest re-usable!)

19. Book on Data Flow, FBP and Reactive Programming

20. Node-RED

21. Blockie.io

22. My adventures in GoFlow

23. My adventures in GoFlow: Network

24. My adventures in GoFlow: Component

25. My adventures in GoFlow:
Aspiring bioinformatics library :)

26. Some links
●
Main website:
www.jpaulmorrison.com/fbp
●
Mailing list:
tinyurl.com/fbplist
●
Google+:
gplus.to/flowbased

27. Thank you!