Tutorial

Lingua Franca (LF) is a polyglot coordination language for concurrent and possibly time-sensitive applications ranging from low-level embedded code to distributed cloud and edge applications. On Oct. 8, 2021, we offered a tutorial on Lingua Franca for the EMSOFT conference, a part of ESWEEK. A video playlist recording is available in six segments, as detailed below.

Useful links:

• This page: https://esweek.lf-lang.org/
• Complete video playlist
• Part I: Introduction
• Part II: Hello World
• Part III: Target Languages
• Part IV: Basic Concepts
• Part V: Concurrency and Performance
• Part VI: Research Overview
• Slides

Part I: Introduction

This part briefly describes the background of the project and explains how to get started with the software.

Useful links:

• Complete video of part I

• Individual parts of the video:

  Contents
  Introduction
  Motivation
  Overview of this tutorial
  History of the project
  Participating
  Getting started
  Native releases (Epoch IDE and lfc)
  Virtual Machine with LF pre-installed

• Virtual machine image: https://vm.lf-lang.org/: download the Ubuntu-for-LF.ova image and import into your favorite virtualization software (e.g., VirtualBox or VMWare Player). Start the VM and run Epoch IDE by clicking on the icon on the left.

• Epoch IDE and lfc command-line compiler: https://releases.lf-lang.org/. Add lfc (and epoch) to your $PATH environment variable.

• Requirements for each target language: https://reqs.lf-lang.org/ (we use the C target here).

Part II: Hello World

This part introduces the language with a simple example.

Useful links:

• Complete video of part II
• Individual parts of the video:

  Contents
  Open Epoch and create a project
  Hello World
  Adding a timer
  Adding a timeout target property
  Adding state variables
  Creating and connecting multiple reactors
  Parameterized reactors
  LF tour recap
  Diagrams

Part III: Target Languages

This part focuses on the target languages other than C, namely C++, Python, TypeScript, and Rust.

Useful links:

• Complete video of part III
• Individual parts of the video:

  Contents
  Introduction
  Cpp
  Python
  Python Demo: Piano Synth
  TypeScript
  Rust

Part IV: Basic Concepts

This part focuses on basic concepts in the language and includes three demos.

Useful links:

• Complete video of part IV
• Individual parts of the video:

  Contents
  Reflex game overview
  Generating the prompts: Basic concepts
  Program control of time: Logical action
  Handling external events: Physical action
  Cycle and causality loop
  Reflex game in Python
  The Rhythm example

Part V: Concurrency

This part focuses on how the language expresses concurrency, exploits multicore, and supports distributed execution.

Useful links:

• Complete video of part V
• Individual parts of the video:

  Contents
  Introduction
  Banks and Multiports
  Utilizing Multicore
  Tracing
  Performance
  Federated Execution

Part VI: Research Overview

This part focuses on a few of the research projects that have been stimulated by the Lingua Franca project.

Useful links:

• Complete video of part VI
• Individual parts of the video:

  Contents
  Introduction
  AUTOSAR
  Autoware/Carla
  Bare Iron Platforms
  Modal Models
  Automated Verification
  Secure Federated Execution
  LF Language Server