Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Is Parallel Programming Just Too Hard?

Posted by kdawson on from the Moore's-Law-for-software dept.

pcause writes "There has been a lot of talk recently about the need for programmers to shift paradigms and begin building more parallel applications and systems. The need to do this and the hardware and systems to support it have been around for a while, but we haven't seen a lot of progress. The article says that gaming systems have made progress, but MMOGs are typically years late and I'll bet part of the problem is trying to be more parallel/distributed. Since this discussion has been going on for over three decades with little progress in terms of widespread change, one has to ask: is parallel programming just too difficult for most programmers? Are the tools inadequate or perhaps is it that it is very difficult to think about parallel systems? Maybe it is a fundamental human limit. Will we really see progress in the next 10 years that matches the progress of the silicon?"

3 of 680 comments (clear)

  1. One word.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    FORTRAN

  2. not hard by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    however, if you're using cheap outsourced or H1B insourced labor, they probably came from a degree mill and don't have the low level understanding to do it. (This criticism also applies to every VB monkey I've ever met).

  3. Maybe this will eventually force better coding? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    It seems to be the norm to expect customers to increase the number of cpus, use faster cpus, add more memory. Efficient coding seems to only occur in text books and magazine articles. Even worse is when they resort to Java, when you make it easier for idiots to write programs, they write some pretty horrible code that sometimes works. Don't ask them to debug it.

    And now you want them to understand parallel programmimg? Good one! Next, you will expect them to learn C or C++, maybe even learn optimization techniques?

    Most professional programmers today are dumb as dirt. The hours are long, the pay sucks, you have no control over the specs, and scope creep will make you want to scream. It seems like a lot of the best ones have taken other jobs that are easier yet pay more.

    Before parallel programing becomes serious you will start seeing tightly coded binaries, like the kind you used to see twenty years ago. Pretty to imagine.