As much as I love C++, I wonder if there has been any work on rewriting this in another language, even Java. From my experiences developing parallel versions of C++ and Java, most of my Java errors arose from program logic, while C++ arose from memory management. Also, thread management and building tend to be less cumbersome within other languages. For academic purposes, a language where you can focus on the concepts would seem to be more useful than a language chosen for speed.