Annotation of OpenXM/doc/ascm2001/design-outline.tex, Revision 1.1
1.1 ! noro 1: % $OpenXM$
! 2:
! 3: \section{Design Outline}
! 4:
! 5: As Schefstr\"om clarified in \cite{schefstrom},
! 6: integration of tools and softwares has three dimensions:
! 7: data, control, and user interface.
! 8:
! 9: Data integration concerns with the exchange of data between different
! 10: softwares or same softwares.
! 11: OpenMath \cite{OpenMath} and MP (Multi Protocol) \cite{GKW} are,
! 12: for example, general purpose mathematical data protocols.
! 13: They provide standard ways to express mathematical objects.
! 14: For example,
! 15: \begin{verbatim}
! 16: <OMOBJ> <OMI> 123 </OMI> </OMOBJ>
! 17: \end{verbatim}
! 18: means the (OpenMath) integer $123$ in OpenMath/XML expression.
! 19:
! 20: Control integration concerns with the establishment and management of
! 21: inter-software communications.
! 22: Control involves, for example, a way to ask computations to other processes
! 23: and a method to interrupt computations on servers from a client.
! 24: RPC, HTTP, MPI, PVM are regarded as a general purpose control protocols or
! 25: infrastructures.
! 26: MCP (Mathematical Communication Protocol)
! 27: by Wang \cite{iamc} is such a protocol for mathematics.
! 28:
! 29: Although data and control are orthogonal to each other,
! 30: real world requires both.
! 31: NetSolve \cite{netsolve}, OpenMath$+$MCP, MP$+$MCP \cite{iamc},
! 32: and MathLink \cite{mathlink} provide both data and control integration.
! 33: Each integration method has their own features determined by their
! 34: own design goals.
! 35: OpenXM (Open message eXchange protocol for Mathematics)
! 36: is a project aiming to integrate data, control and user interfaces
! 37: with design goals motivated by the followings.
! 38: \begin{enumerate}
! 39: \item Noro has been involved in the development of
! 40: a computer algebra system Risa/Asir \cite{asir}.
! 41: An interface for interactive distributed computations was introduced
! 42: to Risa/Asir
! 43: %% version 950831 released
! 44: in 1995.
! 45: The model of computation was RPC (remote procedure call).
! 46: A robust interruption protocol was provided
! 47: by two communication channels
! 48: like the File Transfer Protocol (ftp).
! 49: As an application of this protocol,
! 50: a parallel speed-up was achieved for a Gr\"obner basis computation
! 51: to determine all odd order replicable functions
! 52: (Noro and McKay \cite{noro-mckay}).
! 53: However, the protocol was local in Asir and we thought that we should
! 54: design an open protocol.
! 55: \item Takayama has developed
! 56: a special purpose system Kan/sm1 \cite{kan},
! 57: which is a Gr\"obner engine for the ring of differential operators $D$.
! 58: In order to implement algorithms in $D$-modules due to Oaku
! 59: (see, e.g., \cite{sst-book}),
! 60: factorizations and primary ideal decompositions are necessary.
! 61: Kan/sm1 does not have an implementation for these and called
! 62: Risa/Asir as a UNIX external program.
! 63: This approach was not satisfactory.
! 64: Especially, we could not write a clean interface code between these
! 65: two systems.
! 66: We thought that it is necessary to provide a data and control protocol
! 67: for Risa/Asir to work as a server of factorization and primary ideal
! 68: decomposition.
! 69: \item We have been profited from increasing number
! 70: of mathematical softwares.
! 71: These are usually ``expert'' systems in one area of mathematics
! 72: such as ideals, groups, numbers, polytopes, and so on.
! 73: They have their own interfaces and data formats,
! 74: which are fine for intensive users of these systems.
! 75: However, a unified system will be more convenient
! 76: for users who want to explore a new area of mathematics with these
! 77: softwares or users who need these systems only occasionally.
! 78:
! 79: \item We believe that an open integrated system is a future of mathematical
! 80: softwares.
! 81: However, it might be just a dream without realizability.
! 82: We want to build a prototype of such an open system by using
! 83: existing standards, technologies and several mathematical softwares.
! 84: We want to see how far we can go with this approach.
! 85: \end{enumerate}
! 86:
! 87: Motivated with these, we started the OpenXM project with the following
! 88: fundamental architecture.
! 89: \begin{enumerate}
! 90: \item Communication is an exchange of messages. The messages are classified into
! 91: three types:
! 92: DATA, COMMAND, and SPECIAL.
! 93: They are called OX (OpenXM) messages.
! 94: Among the three types,
! 95: {\it OX data messages} wrap mathematical data.
! 96: We use standards of mathematical data formats such as OpenMath and MP
! 97: as well as our own data format {\it CMO}
! 98: ({\it Common Mathematical Object format}).
! 99: \item Servers, which provide services to other processes, are stack machines.
! 100: The stack machine is called the
! 101: {\it OX stack machine}.
! 102: Existing mathematical softwares are wrapped with this stack machine.
! 103: Minimal requirements for a target software wrapped with the OX stack machine
! 104: are as follows:
! 105: \begin{enumerate}
! 106: \item The target must have a serialized interface such as a character based
! 107: interface.
! 108: \item An output of the target must be understandable for computer programs;
! 109: it should follow a grammar that can be parsed with other softwares.
! 110: \end{enumerate}
! 111: \item Any server may have a hybrid interface;
! 112: it may accept and execute not only stack machine commands,
! 113: but also its original command sequences.
! 114: For example,
! 115: if we send the following string to the {\tt ox\_asir} server
! 116: (OpenXM server based on Risa/Asir) \\
! 117: \verb+ " fctr(x^100-y^100); " + \\
! 118: and call the stack machine command \\
! 119: \verb+ SM_executeStringByLocalParser + \\
! 120: then the server executes the asir command \\
! 121: \verb+ fctr(x^100-y^100); +
! 122: (factorize $x^{100}-y^{100}$ over ${\bf Q}$)
! 123: and pushes the result onto the stack.
! 124: \end{enumerate}
! 125: OpenXM package is implemented on above fundamental architecture.
! 126: For example, the following is a command sequence to ask $1+1$ from
! 127: the Asir client to the {\tt ox\_sm1} server:
! 128: \begin{verbatim}
! 129: P = sm1_start();
! 130: ox_push_cmo(P,1); ox_push_cmo(P,1);
! 131: ox_execute_string(P,"add"); ox_pop_cmo(P);
! 132: \end{verbatim}
! 133: Here, {\tt ox\_sm1} is an OpenXM server based on Kan/sm1.
! 134:
! 135: The OpenXM package is implemented on the OpenXM for TCP/IP,
! 136: which uses the client-server model.
! 137: The OpenXM on MPI \cite{MPI} is currently running on Risa/Asir
! 138: as we will see in Section \ref{section:homog}.
! 139: In this paper, we discuss only on systems for TCP/IP
! 140: to concentrate on the core part of our design.
! 141:
! 142:
! 143:
! 144:
! 145:
! 146:
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