Creation of a GUI for Zori, a Quantum Monte Carlo program, usingRappture
In their research laboratories, academic institutions produce some of the most advanced software for scientific applications. However, this software is usually developed only for local application in the research laboratory or for method development. In spite of having the latest advances in the particular field of science, such software often lacks adequate documentation and therefore is difficult to use by anyone other than the code developers. As such codes become more complex, so typically do the input files and command statements necessary to operate them. Many programs offer the flexibility of performing calculations based on different methods that have their own set of variables and options to be specified. Moreover, situations can arise in which certain options are incompatible with each other. For this reason, users outside the development group can be unaware of how the program runs in detail. The opportunity can be lost to make the software readily available outside of the laboratory of origin. This is a long-standing problem in scientific programming. Rappture, Rapid Application Infrastructure [1], is a new GUI development kit that enables a developer to build an I/O interface for a specific application. This capability enables users to work only with the generated GUI and avoids the problem of the user needing to learn details of the code. Further, it reduces input errors by explicitly specifying the variables required. Zori, a quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) program, developed by the Lester group at the University of California, Berkeley [2], is one of the few free tools available for this field. Like many scientific computer packages, Zori suffers from the problems described above. Potential users outside the research group have acquired it, but some have found the code difficult to use. Furthermore, new members of the Lester group usually have to take considerable time learning all the options the code has to offer before they can use it successfully. In this paper we describe the use of the Rappture toolkit to generate a GUI, labeled Zopi (Zori Processing Interface), for the Zori computer code.
- Research Organization:
- COLLABORATION - U. Nacional Autonoma deMexico
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Director. Office of Science. Basic EnergySciences
- DOE Contract Number:
- DE-AC02-05CH11231
- OSTI ID:
- 932504
- Report Number(s):
- LBNL-63774; R&D Project: 401101; BnR: KC0301020; TRN: US200813%%93
- Journal Information:
- Computing in Science and Engineering, Vol. 0, Issue 0; Related Information: Journal Publication Date: 10/2007
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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