Part I, II, III, IV, V, VI
Abstract
In Part I of this multi-part article, I wrote that the master/slave approach to elementary behavior control in the COSA programming model should be extended to high-level software construction. My thesis is that this control mechanism is so simple and intuitive that it will revolutionize computer programming by moving it out of the exclusive realm of computer nerds into that of the average computer user. Since COSA is inherently parallel, this will, in effect, solve the parallel programming problem. Below, I go over the elementary principles of control used in COSA.
Effector Control
Most of us are familiar with the controls that come with many of our electrical and electronic appliances. Some may be a little bit fancier than others but almost all come equipped with a minimum set of controls: the on/off (start/stop) buttons. To reuse the metaphor of the previous post, we are the masters and the appliances are the slaves. It turns out that motor command neurons in the brain’s basal ganglia use a similar method to control their target muscles: excitatory (start) and inhibitory (stop) signals. The way it works is that the neuron begins firing as soon as it receives an excitatory signal and stops firing when it receives an inhibitory signal. This is what gave me the original idea for COSA effectors. The addition effector shown below will repeat its operation over and over until it receives a stop command.

No action can be started if it has already started, or stopped if it is already stopped.In sum, low-level behavior control in COSA is a very simple thing that even children can grasp. In Part III, I will explain how to control the behavior of high-level COSA components by applying the same principles used with elementary objects.
Related article:
How to Solve the Parallel Programming Crisis