WAMM in the framework of graphical user interfaces for metacomputing management

Current environments for metacomputing generally have tools for managing th e resources of a metacomputer but often lack adequate tools for designing, writing, and executing programs. Building an application for a metacomputer typically involves writing source codes on a local node, transferring and compiling codes on every node, and starting their execution. Without such t ools, the application development phases can come up against considerable d ifficulties. In order to alleviate these problems, some graphical user inte rfaces (GUIs) based on PVM, such as XPVM, Parallel Application Development Environment (PADE) and Wide Area Metacomputing Manager (WAMM) have been imp lemented. These GUIs integrate a programming environment which facilitates the user in performing the application development phases and the applicati on execution. This paper outlines the general requirements for designing GUIs for metacom puting management, and compares WAMM, a graphical user interface, with some related works. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.