Referee 1 ******************************************* E: Referee Comments (For Author and Editor) Summary: This paper describes on-going projects in grid computing, both in developing applications for a transatlantic test-bed and in developing toolkits under the DAMIEN project. The authors motivate the use of a message-passing model (specifically, MPI) and identify the need for debugging and performance analysis tools. The architecture of the DAMIEN system is presented and a collection of research and commercial tools are described. The focus of the paper is on their implementation of MPI (PACX-MPI) and an associated debugging and verification tool (MARMOT). This is a paper in the style of a "status report". The authors have been involved in grid computing for some time and describe an on-going project. It is hard to tell how much of the paper is about "new" things. Of the two specific tools, described on pages 5-7, one (PACX-MPI) seems to have been described earlier (c.f. reference #7) and used in several projects (c.f. references 4, 17, 21) while the other (the MARMOT debugger) appears to be new but not groundbreaking. One small question: PACX-MPI has been used on a number of projects. Have these projects employed some/most/all of the extensions listed in the bullet list on the top of page 6? Is there performance data about the effectiveness of the optimizations and data compression? [Yes, there is performance data available. We added a comment and a reference for further information.] F: Presentation Changes 1. The abstract is too vague. It should give a better preview of the contents of the paper. [We modified the abstract and explicitly mention the two tools PACX-MPI and MARMOT] 2. Page 2, 4th paragraph. The word "german" should be capitalized. [done] 3. Page 3, first line of text. The word "part" should be "parts". [done] 4. Page 3, 2nd line of text. "Message-Passing Standard" should be "Message-Passing Interface" or "Message-Passing Interface standard" or "message-passing standard MPI. [done] 5. Page 3, lines 4/5. "Supercomputers", "Computational" and "Grids" should not be capitalized. [done] 6. Page 3, 2nd paragraph. "figure 1" is probably better capitalized (Figure 1). [done] 7. Page 4, 2nd bullet on page. "applications" should be "applications". Also, the phrase "solve multi-disciplinary phenomena" might be better as "investigate multi-disciplinary phenomena" or "solve multi-disciplinary problems". [done] 8. Page 4, end of first full paragraph. " in semi-automatich" should be "in a semi-automatic". [done] 9. Page 5, 2nd line of text. "programms" should be "programs". [done] 10. Page 6, last full paragraph. "Classical Debuggers" should be "Classical debuggers". Also, immediately after the reference [13, 22] there appears to be some missing words as the next sentence begins "approach is to ...". [done] Referee 2 ******************************************* E: Referee Comments (For Author and Editor) ------------------------------ The paper presents two tools that are definitely needed for implementing MPI based application for use in distributed an Grid environments, but (general criticism:) this is not all, that is necessary for a Grid Computing Environment (the topic of the CandCPandE special issue). The paper would be more suitable for a Grid programming model special issue. More detailed points and questions: The paper focuses on PACX-MPI and MARMOT, but both of these software tools are not mentioned in the abstract. How is the 'integration' of the tools in the DAMIEN toolbox done? A 'Integrated Software Development Environment' is more than a couple of tools - relying on a common protocol or MPI - which can be invoked on the command line. Maybe you have done more on the integration, then this should be expressed in the paper, or the title of the paper is not feasable. [The "integrated" in the title refered to the integration of tools into a Grid environment. Since these tools are extension of the tools the user is used to it is possible to use them wherever they have been integrated. However, there is no GUI that integrates all the tools in a single, standard environment. Since this expectation is frequently raised by mentioning "integrated" in that context, we agree that this word is mis-leading and dropped it from the title.] The 'Project status and Future plans' section says, that with the presented tools the use of a large number of applications is possible. But is there any application that runs with PACX-MPI on a Grid infrastructure w/Globus or UNICORE? [Yes, we now mention this in the text.] Also a comparison to other Grid-MPIs could be valuable. Especially a comparison with MPICH-G2 would be interesting to see (in terms of usage and performance). [this would be a paper of its own, especially the performance comparison] More technical: How can PACX-MPI deal with firewalls? Does ist use a special port(-range)? [yes. We now say this in the paper.] Does MARMOT rely on PACX-MPI, or can it be used with any MPI implementation? [We now explicitly mention in the text that it can be used together with any MPI implementation that provides the profiling interface.] The paper also doesn't say something about availability. Is the software free? Can ist be used by others? Can it be downloaded? [We now provide an URL where you can get the software] Some pictures could also be added (e.g., something like a PACX-MPI architecture picture or a MARMOT screenshot). [We provide an PACX-MPI architecture picture. In our opinion it provides more information that a simple screenshot.] F: Presentation Changes The paper should be reviewed relating to english punctuation. It also has some grammatical errors. Referee 3 ******************************************* E. Referee comments for author and editor: The paper was pretty concise and to the point so their wasn't much to critique. ** Presentation - 4/5 layout and flow of paper is good. ** Competence - 4/5 it showed how they used other grid-tools to create a software development environment that made things easier for the HPC user. ** Contribution - 4/5 ** Originality - 4/5 ** Strengths - 4/5 enables users to use the grid with more ease and better tools.