DISplay: a system for visual-interaction in distributed simulations

We propose an application-independent visual interaction library (VIL) well suited to distributed simulation. Advantages of this system include ease of use, flexibility, code reuse, and modularity. Our design ideas are manifest, in the DISplay system, a graphical user-interaction and display library which binds to any parallel software system. We provide examples of its interactive use in the the dynamic display of results from sequential queueing simulations, and distributed particle-physics simulations. These examples illustrate synchronization of multiple remote display requests and potential for enhanced parallel simulation. Also presented are provisions for customized user-interaction dialogs-for application-related input, and bi-directional interaction-between user and application.