MPD README

Gregg Townsend
Greg Andrews

The University of Arizona
January 20, 2004


This the MPD language for Multithreaded, Parallel, and Distributed
Programming.  Installation instructions are in the file doc/install.html.

Some sample programs are available in the vsuite/examples directory;
see the README there for more details.

Language documentation can be found at the MPD home on the web,
    http://www.cs.arizona.edu/mpd

MPD was inspired by the book:
    Foundations of Multithreaded, Parallel, and Distributed Programming
    Gregory R. Andrews
    Addison-Wesley, 2000  (ISBN 0-201-35752-6)

The MPD implementation is based on version 2.3.2 of the SR programming
language.  The syntax has changed, but the internals are essentially
the same except for a massive renaming.  Accordingly MPD is limited by
the features of SR and does not correspond exactly to the MPD book.

Much of the SR implementation documentation is still valid.  It can be
found at:
	http://www.cs.arizona.edu/sr/doc.html
Implementations of MPD and SR can coexist, but they do not interoperate.
It is not possible to construct a program from both SR and MPD components.


The MPD system is in the public domain and you may use and distribute it
as you wish.  We ask that you retain credits referencing the University
of Arizona and that you identify any changes you make.

We can't provide a warranty with MPD; it's up to you to determine its
suitability and reliability for your needs.  We would like to hear of
any problems you encounter but we cannot promise a timely correction.
