Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!udel!nigel.ee.udel.edu!mccalpin From: mccalpin@perelandra.cms.udel.edu (John D. McCalpin) Newsgroups: comp.sys.super Subject: Re: Generating Source Code out of Algebra Message-ID: Date: 17 Aug 90 19:33:25 GMT References: <1116@camme.UUCP> Sender: usenet@ee.udel.edu Followup-To: comp.sys.super Organization: College of Marine Studies, U. Del. Lines: 34 Nntp-Posting-Host: perelandra.cms.udel.edu In-reply-to: cammerdl@camme.UUCP's message of 17 Aug 90 10:27:00 GMT >>>>> On 17 Aug 90 10:27:00 GMT, cammerdl@camme.UUCP (R. De Langhe CAMME project) said: R.> On our site, lots of scientists are developping modeling programs to R.> simulate all kinds of hydrodynamical systems like oil-slick evolution, R.> wave-height predictions, etc. R.> Would it not be much more easy and efficient if these scientists could R.> use an algebra-like programming language, in which they can easily recognize R.> errors, or proof correctness of an algorithm, etc. and let some kind of a R.> source-code generator parse their expressions into C (or FORTRAN) ? This is certainly one of the weakest areas in the field of "scientific programming". I found a very interesting article in the Journal of Computational Physics in 1966 describing a package written in Algol which wrote 3D plasma dynamics programs in Algol. Since this work was done in 1964-1965, it is a bit shocking that in 25 years such techniques have made such negligible intrusion into the day-to-day activities of scientific programmers. One package that I do know of is ELLPACK, a system for generating FORTRAN programs for solving elliptic partial differential equations. I believe that Purdue University has the copyright, and that they are working on an elliptic PDE expert system based on it. The introduction of higher-level/object-oriented languages will presumably make the construction of many programs easier, since a collection of "building blocks" can be constructed to take care of a lot of the coding detail. Ken Wilson's group (then) at Cornell was using C++ for such a project. I heard that Wilson left Cornell, but I don't know where he went, or if the "Gibb's Project" followed him. -- John D. McCalpin mccalpin@perelandra.cms.udel.edu Assistant Professor mccalpin@vax1.udel.edu College of Marine Studies, U. Del. J.MCCALPIN/OMNET