# PyLinda V0.4

## Introduction

Linda is an widely studied distributed computing environment, centered around the notion of a tuple space. A tuple space is a bag (also called a multi-set) of tuples. A tuple is an ordered, typed chunk of data. Tuple spaces exist independently of processes in the system, and the data placed into a tuple space also exist independently. See "Generative communication in Linda" (1985) and "Multiple tuple spaces in Linda" both by David Gelernter for more information on Linda.

PyLinda is a simple implementation of a linda system, however it also includes several of the more recently proposed extensions to Linda in the form of multiple tuple spaces, garbage collection, sane non-blocking primitives and bulk tuple operations.

For installation instructions see the "How To Install" page.

## A Brief How To

Firstly you need to create a network of one or more Linda servers. This can be done by executng the following command on one node of the network.

    linda_server.py

and then executing

    linda_server.py -c<ip address or dns name>

on each of the other nodes where the ip address or dns name is for a node where the server has already been started. For a more detailed view on how to run the server see "Running The Server" .

On any of the computers that have a server started you can then start Python.

    >>> import linda
    >>> linda.connect()
    >>> linda.universe._out((1, 2, 3))
    >>> linda.universe._in((1, 2, int))
    (1, 2, 3)

Note:
  For details on how to write a program to take advantage of the linda system see the tutorial page.

  For more detailed examples look at the examples section.