Subject: Education Applets

From: "David E. Bernholdt" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 27 Apr 2000 09:02:01 -0400

You've done some very nice work producing these applets.  Now I think
it is time to wrap it with some good documentation so that people can
understand, use, and modify it in the future, even if you guys are not
around to help.

What we need is to produce a small web site for each applet that
includes the following:
1) The applet (of course) so that people can run it
2) The source code, well documented, so that someone can understand
   and modify it easily. (Include any special instructions for
   building it too, of course)
3) A short text description of what the applet does and how to use
   it.  This should be a kind of "quick reference" and have two parts:
   a) A description of the controls and how to use them
   b) A description of what is being displayed as the applet runs -- a
      kind of narrative that helps the insructor or student using the
      applet make the connection with the algorithm as it might be
      described in a class.
4) A longer text of 1-2 pages that provides a slightly more detailed
   description of what you've done.  This should be the kind of thing
   that could be included in a technical report, paper, or thesis as an
   appendix.  It should describe the stuff as in item (3), but in a
   little more detail (it would be good to include an actual pseudocode
   representation of the algorithm you're presenting, for example).
   It should also describe how the applet is constructed to help people
   undertand the source code.

This need not be extremely fancy looking, but the documentation should
be good.  For the source code, for example, it is sufficient to put
the source in the directory and link to it from the web page, so that
someone can do a "Save As" to download it to their computer.  You
don't have to make some fancy presentation of the source code in HTML.

The ultimate destination for this will be www.new-npac.org, but for
the time being, just work where you're used to working.

I would actually like to have the 1-2 page mini-reports done first, so
that I can include them in a report I'm writing for ERDC.  Please
start on that first and do it ASAP.

Dongmin, after you finish your Jacobi applet, please take the lead on
working on the CFD applet you help Saleh with.  There was talk of
writing a paper about this too.  I don't know if it has happened, but
that would be Saleh's primary responsibility.

Please let me know if you have any questions.
Thanks, David
--
David E. Bernholdt                      | Email:  [email-masked]
Northeast Parallel Architectures Center | Phone:  +1 315 443 3857
111 College Place, Syracuse University  | Fax:    +1 315 443 1973
Syracuse, NY 13244-4100                 | URL:    http://www.npac.syr.edu