Jump to content

Pipeline programming

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Balabiot (talk | contribs) at 14:59, 31 May 2010 (never seen the unix pipeline or anything else referred to as "pipeline programming"). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

When a programming language is originally designed without any syntax to nest function calls, pipeline programming is a simple syntax change to add it. The programmer connects notional program modules into a flow structure, by analogy to a physical pipeline carrying reaction products through a chemical or other plant. The best-known example is the UNIX pipe system, but many high level software design tools (such as the openDX display suite) provide a GUI pipeline programming tool that helps visualize data flow through the program. A Data Flow Diagram (DFD) maps well to pipeline programming. Note that exception handling can be one of the weak points[clarification needed].

Examples

See also