Coordination of a heterogeneous coastal hydrodynamics application in manifold

In this paper we show how the coordination language Manifold can be used to control the interactions of multiple heterogeneous application programs. We use a concrete example from Delft Hydaulics, a consulting and research company which develops models of natural hydraulic systems (e.g., river flows, tidal currents, wave penetrations in harbours, etc.). These simulation programs accurately model water flow phenomena and are used for many places in the world. Often, however, a number of these programs need to be used in conjunction with each other to address more comprehensive problems. For example, the water level in the Rotterdam harbour is determined both by the behaviour of the North Sea and by the discharge of the rivers Rhine and Meuse. Instead of creating Unix shell scripts for each particular configuration of application programs, an executive program has been developed and implemented in Manifold that reads a configuration file and subsequently starts, interconnects and controls all relevant component programs