During its execution, a task is independent of all other tasks. For an
application which executes in terms of tasks, the application definition can be
free of the details of the execution. Many projects have demonstrated that a
task system (TS) can provide such an application with a parallel, distributed,
heterogeneous, adaptive, dynamic, real-time, interactive, reliable, secure or
other execution. A task consists of items and thus the application is defined
in terms of items. An item architecture (IA) can support arrays, routines and
other structures of items, thus allowing for a structured application
definition. Taking properties from many projects, the support can extend
through to currying, application defined types, conditional items, streams and
other definition elements. A task system and item architecture (TSIA) thus
promises unprecedented levels of support for application execution and
definition.Comment: vii+244 pages, including 126 figures of diagrams and code examples.
Submitted to Springer Verlag. For further information see http://www.tsia.or