Flow Based Programming

Question

I have been doing a little reading on Flow Based Programming over the last few days. There is a wiki which provides further detail. And wikipedia has a good overview on it

Answer 1

1) I build a small FBP framework for an anomaly detection project, and it turns out to have been a great idea.

You can also have a look at some of the KNIME videos, that give a good idea of what a flow based framework feels like when the framework is put together by a great team. Admittedly, it is batch based and not created for continuous operation.

By far the best example of flow based programming, however, is UNIX pipes which is one of the oldest, most overlooked FBP framework. I don't think I have to elaborate on the power of nix pipes...

2) FBP is a very powerful tool for a large set of problems. The intrinsic parallelism is a great advantage, and any FBP framework can be made completely network transparent by using adapter modules. Smart frameworks are also absurdly fault tolerant, and able to dynamically reload crashed modules when necessary. The conceptual simplicity also allows cleaner communication with everybody involved in a project, and much cleaner code.

3) Absolutely! Pipes are here to stay, and are one of the most powerful feature of unix. The power inherent in a FBP framework compared to a static program are many, and trivialise change, to the point where some frameworks can be reconfigured while running with no special measures.

FBP FTW! ;-)