Engineering Internal Domain-Specific Language Software for Lattice-based Simulations

Abstract

Modern high-level programming languages are making it practical to develop internal domain-specific languages (DSL) for even computationally intensive applications such as complex systems simulations. We present a prototype DSL to implement lattice-based operations for a whole family of simulation models on different lattices and with different neighbourhood localities. We use closure techniques to switch between lattice geometries and neighbourhoods at run-time. We show how a framework can be implemented in both C++ and Java and that a fluent interface DSL command-line layer and a graphical interface layer can both use this same framework. We find that we can drastically speed up the development and testing of a new simulation model that fits our DSL pattern and demonstrate this with significantly reduced lines of code needed for an incrementally added new model. We present results based on two-dimensional lattice models with discrete cell states for topologically square, hexagonal and triangular geometries and describe how these ideas generalise to higher dimensional problems. We also discuss how the use of internal domain specific languages and tools can facilitate further rapid development of other simulation codes and models.

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“…We then use nested loops operating over some working variables to build up the shell of Moore neighbour indices in a list when requested for a particular centre cell k. This can be done in C/C++/Java/Groovy or any related programming language. Higher level languages like Groovy, Python, Ruby and so forth allow some extra layers of code using mechanisms such as closures [9] to make these operations more compact and elegant for the model user/programmer. However the key operations as encoded in Figure 4 must still be implemented in an appropriate imperative or object library.…”

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