Glossary of Terms
- API
- API - Application Programming Interface. This means a defined, documented
interface for using any software tool or framework, that others can use in
their programs to complete a task.
- Benchmark
- In the context of CREDO, this means a test of a code’s results/performance
according to some metric, which has generally been published in the
literature.
- Field
- A 3D domain - in StGermain codes, the FieldVariable class provides an
interface for accessing data from Fields, which are usually discretised as
either a Mesh or Swarm. For reference to the FieldVariable
class, see
http://www.auscope.monash.edu.au/codex/StgDomain.html#FieldVariable
- Input File
- In the StGermain context, see Model.
- Mesh
- A mesh of nodes or data in a discretised domain. For the reference to the
Mesh class provided by StGermain and Underworld, see
http://www.auscope.monash.edu.au/codex/StGermain.html#Mesh.
- Model
- In the context of StGermain-based codes, a “Model” refers to a complete,
consistent scientific application: encapsulated by a set of StGermain
components. These are normally represented by a set of XML files specifying
these components. Sometimes referred to as simply an “input file” to
Underworld, and stored in an InputFiles sub-directory.
- Model Result
- In the context of CREDO, this refers to the “result” of a Model Run.
This includes all the data the model run produced, usually stored in an
output directory (such as checkpoint files, and the FrequentOutput.dat
summary), plus any ‘meta-data’ about how long the model took to run, how
much data was used, etc. See the credo.modelresult module.
- Model Run
- In the context of CREDO, this means the specification of a Model to
run, PLUS the metadata required for the run (e.g. over-rides of simulation
parameters, processors to use, whether to run locally or over the grid,
etc). See the credo.modelrun module.
- StGermain
- An object-oriented framework, written in C, to enable the development of
Scientific applications to run on parallel computers. See
http://www.stgermainproject.org
- Swarm
- In the context of StGermain-based codes, a “Swarm” refers to a set of
particles. In Underworld a swarm with a large number of particles
is used to discretise a Field via individual material points. See
http://www.auscope.monash.edu.au/codex/StgDomain.html#Swarm.
- System Test
- In the context of software, a test that the entire software system works as
expected, for some sort of non-trivial problem.
- Underworld
- A geophysics modelling framework, implemented using StGermain - see
http://www.underworldproject.org
- Virtual method
- A method of a class that is not actually implemented, and thus requires
sub-classes to implement.
- VRMS
- Velocity Root Mean Squared. An observable commonly calculated for
convection runs of the Underworld code.