"Dataflow languages contrast with the majority of programming languages, which use the imperative programming model. In imperative programming the program is modeled as a series of operations, the data being effectively invisible. This distinction may seem minor, but the paradigm shift is fairly dramatic, and allows dataflow languages to be spread out across multicore, multiprocessor systems for free."
"Dataflow languages promote the data to become the main concept behind any program. The data is now explicit. Operations consist of "black boxes" with inputs and outputs, all of which are always explicitly defined. They run as soon as all of their inputs become valid, as opposed to when the program encounters them."
"Whereas a traditional program essentially consists of a series of statements saying "do this, now do this," a dataflow program is more like a series of workers on an assembly line, who will do their assigned task as soon as the materials arrive. This is why dataflow languages are inherently parallel; the operations have no hidden state to keep track of, and the operations are all 'ready' at the same time."
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