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Article

iTasks: executable specifications of interactive work flow systems for the web

Authors:

Rinus Plasmeijer,

Pieter KoopmanAuthors Info & Claims

ICFP '07: Proceedings of the 12th ACM SIGPLAN international conference on Functional programming

Pages 141 - 152

https://doi.org/10.1145/1291151.1291174

Published: 01 October 2007 Publication History

Abstract

In this paper we introduce the iTask system: a set of combinators to specify work flows in a pure functional language at a very high level of abstraction. Work flow systems are automated systems in which tasks are coordinated that have to be executed by humans and computers. The combinators that we propose support work flow patterns commonly found in commercial work flow systems. Compared with most of these commercial systems, the iTask system offers several advantages: tasks are statically typed, tasks can be higher order, the combinators are fully compositional, dynamic and recursive work flows can be specified, and last but not least, the specification is used to generate an executable web-based multi-user work flow application. With the iTask system, useful work flows can be defined which cannot be expressed in other systems: work can be interrupted and subsequently directed to other workers for further processing.

The implementation is special as well. It is based on the Clean iData toolkit which makes it possible to create fully dynamic, interactive, thin client web applications. Thanks to the generic programming techniques used in the iData toolkit, the programming effort is reduced significantly: state handling, form rendering, user interaction, and storage management is handled automatically. The iTask system allows a task to be regarded as a special kind of persistent redex being reduced by the application user via task completion. The combinators control the order in which these redexes are made available to the application user. The system rewrites the persistent task redexes in a similar way as functions are rewritten in lazy functional languages.

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Cited By

Achten PKoopman P(2025)Compositional Views in Compositional Images – Category: Research –Trends in Functional Programming10.1007/978-3-031-74558-4_4(75-91)Online publication date: 10-Jan-2025
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-74558-4_4
Steenvoorden TNaus N(2023)Dynamic TopHat: Start and Stop Tasks at RuntimeProceedings of the 35th Symposium on Implementation and Application of Functional Languages10.1145/3652561.3652574(1-13)Online publication date: 29-Aug-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3652561.3652574
Lubbers MKoopman PRamsingh ASinger JTrinder P(2023)Could Tierless Languages Reduce IoT Development Grief?ACM Transactions on Internet of Things10.1145/35729014:1(1-35)Online publication date: 23-Feb-2023
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Published In

cover image ACM Conferences

ICFP '07: Proceedings of the 12th ACM SIGPLAN international conference on Functional programming

October 2007

346 pages

ISBN:9781595938152

DOI:10.1145/1291151

General Chair:
Ralf Hinze
Universität Bonn, Germany
,
Program Chair:
Norman Ramsey
Harvard University, USA

ACM SIGPLAN Notices Volume 42, Issue 9
Proceedings of the ICFP '07 conference
September 2007
331 pages
ISSN:0362-1340
EISSN:1558-1160
DOI:10.1145/1291220
Issue’s Table of Contents

Copyright © 2007 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Published: 01 October 2007

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October 1 - 3, 2007

Freiburg, Germany

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Overall Acceptance Rate 333 of 1,064 submissions, 31%

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Cited By

Achten PKoopman P(2025)Compositional Views in Compositional Images – Category: Research –Trends in Functional Programming10.1007/978-3-031-74558-4_4(75-91)Online publication date: 10-Jan-2025
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-74558-4_4
Steenvoorden TNaus N(2023)Dynamic TopHat: Start and Stop Tasks at RuntimeProceedings of the 35th Symposium on Implementation and Application of Functional Languages10.1145/3652561.3652574(1-13)Online publication date: 29-Aug-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3652561.3652574
Lubbers MKoopman PRamsingh ASinger JTrinder P(2023)Could Tierless Languages Reduce IoT Development Grief?ACM Transactions on Internet of Things10.1145/35729014:1(1-35)Online publication date: 23-Feb-2023
https://doi.org/10.1145/3572901
Staps Cvan Groningen JPlasmeijer R(2019)Lazy interworking of compiled and interpreted code for sandboxing and distributed systemsProceedings of the 31st Symposium on Implementation and Application of Functional Languages10.1145/3412932.3412941(1-12)Online publication date: 25-Sep-2019
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3412932.3412941
Koopman PPlasmeijer R(2019)Type-Safe Functions and Tasks in a Shallow Embedded DSL for MicroprocessorsCentral European Functional Programming School10.1007/978-3-030-28346-9_8(283-340)Online publication date: 14-Aug-2019
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-28346-9_8
Koopman PLubbers MPlasmeijer R(2018)A Task-Based DSL for MicrocomputersProceedings of the Real World Domain Specific Languages Workshop 201810.1145/3183895.3183902(1-11)Online publication date: 24-Feb-2018
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3183895.3183902
Bolderheij FJansen JKool AStutterheim J(2018)A Mission-Driven C2 Framework for Enabling Heterogeneous CollaborationNL ARMS Netherlands Annual Review of Military Studies 201810.1007/978-94-6265-246-0_6(107-130)Online publication date: 13-Jul-2018
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6265-246-0_6
Stutterheim JAchten PPlasmeijer R(2018)Maintaining Separation of Concerns Through Task Oriented Software DevelopmentTrends in Functional Programming10.1007/978-3-319-89719-6_2(19-38)Online publication date: 19-Apr-2018
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-89719-6_2
Oortgiese Avan Groningen JAchten PPlasmeijer R(2017)A Distributed Dynamic Architecture for Task Oriented ProgrammingProceedings of the 29th Symposium on the Implementation and Application of Functional Programming Languages10.1145/3205368.3205375(1-12)Online publication date: 30-Aug-2017
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3205368.3205375
Achten PStutterheim JLijnse BPlasmeijer RSchrijvers T(2016)Towards the Layout of ThingsProceedings of the 28th Symposium on the Implementation and Application of Functional Programming Languages10.1145/3064899.3064905(1-13)Online publication date: 31-Aug-2016
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3064899.3064905
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