Dataflow

Dataflow is a term used in computing, and may have various shades of meaning. It is closely related to message passing.

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Dataflow is a software architecture based on the idea that changing the value of a variable should automatically force recalculation of the values of other variables.

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Dataflow programming languages embody these principles, with Spreadsheets perhaps the most widespread embodiment of dataflow. For example, in a spreadsheet you can specify a cell formula which depends on other cells; then when any of those cells is updated the first cell's value is automatically recalculated. It's possible for one change to initiate a whole sequence of changes, if one cell depends on another cell which depends on yet another cell, and so on.

Computing: Originally, the word computing was synonymous with counting and calculating, and a science that deals with the original sense of computing mathematical calculations....

Message passing: In computer science, Message passing is used in concurrrent programming, parallel programming, and object-oriented programming, to accomplish communication by sending messages to recipients. This is in contrast to using shared memory and locks or other facilities of mutual exclusion. Prominent mode...

Spreadsheet: A spreadsheet is a rectangular table (or grid) of information, often financial information. The word came from "spread" in its sense of a newspaper or magazine item (text and/or graphics) that covers two facing pages, extending across the center fold and treating the two pages as one large one. Th...