Implementation of a Petri net based parallel programming language PNPL on workstation

We proposed a parallel programming language based on Petri net, named PNPL. It consists of graphical and text components, where the text components are similar to programs written in Pascal and the graphical components form a Petri net which describes the flow of control in parallel processing. PNPL programs can be executed on multiprocessor machines controlled by a Petri net. This paper reports the implementation of an PNPL programming environment for workstations. The programming environment consists of an editor, a compiler and a simulator which includes a debugger. A Petri net is drawn using the graphic functions available in the editor, and the text components can be edited in multiple windows. The compiler translates PNPL programs into an intermediate C-language code and the simulator implemented using parallel processes on UNIX, and realizes the environment of the multiprocessor controlled by the Petri net. The debugger can trace the execution following the graph and text components, and can plot the movement of tokens in the Petri net graph. We can develop PNPL programs and evaluate the simulated hardware as if using the real machine