OBJECT ORIENTATION AND VISUALIZATION OF PHYSICS IN 2 DIMENSIONS

We present a generalized framework for cellular/lattice-based visualiz ations in two dimensions based on state-of-the-art computing abstracti ons. Our implementation lakes the form of a library of reusable functi ons written in C++ that hide complex graphical programming issues from the user and mimic the algebraic structure of physics at the Hamilton ian level. Our toolkit is not just a graphics library but an object an alysis of physical systems that disentangles separate concepts in a fa ithful analytical way. It could be rewritten in other languages such a s Java and extended to three-dimensional systems straightforwardly. We illustrate the usefulness of our analysis with implementations of spi n films (the two-dimensional XY model with and without an external mag netic field) and a model for diffusion through a triangular lattice. ( C) 1998 American Institute of Physics. [S0894-1866(98)01703-9].