Intentional MPI programming in a visual development environment

BladeRunner is a research project that explores the use of intentional and code generative approaches to facilitate programming in MPI (Message Passing Interface) for parallel and distributed programming. The BladeRunner development environment provides an interactive visual approach based on figures representing higher level abstractions of MPI artifacts. This, along with direct manipulation of visual abstractions, allows the user to both view and express coding intentions clearly and rapidly. As a constructive programming paradigm, direct manipulation of figures translates into coding actions reflected into generated program code. Thus, programming focus is higher level, on visual representations for MPI programming concepts, and evolution of program state reflected in diagrams, instead of syntax or language structure details.We describe the BladeRunner prototype tool, built upon the Eclipse open-source platform, and discuss the vision for this work. © 2006 by the Association for Computing Machinery, Inc.