Support for pointer semantics in a generative communication framework

The Generative Communication (GC) paradigm was introduced in the early 1980s in the form of the Linda coordination and communication language (Gelernter & Bernstein, 1982). The goal of the language was to provide an elegant, intuitive alternative to the state-of-the-art in parallel and distributed processing languages at that time, namely remote procedure calls; message passing systems; and shared memory systems (Gelernter, 1985). Despite the longevity of the Linda coordination language and the GC paradigm, in general, the literature is devoid of meaningful research into the construction and manipulation of dynamic, pointer-based data structures within the context of the GC paradigm. This document motivates the need for such data structures in GC. In addition, this document explores the reasons for the lack literature regarding dynamic pointer-based data structures in GC. Finally, we develop solutions to address the lack of support, within the GC paradigm, for such data structures.