6.2 Application Visualization System (AVS)

6.2.1 Programming language

• C (K & R and ANSI styles);
• Fortran 77;
• C++

6.2.2 General overview and structure

There are two types of modules which differ in the way their execution is controlled:

• Subroutine: these modules are controlled by the AVS Kernel (Flow Executive) which will invoke a module only when its input ports or parameters have received new or changed data;
• Coroutine: these modules execute independently of AVS and explicitly inquire data on the input ports and parameter settings whenever they require this information. They also send data into an AVS network asynchronously; this could cause problems if large amounts of data are sent so coroutines have synchronisation routines made available to them.

6.2.3 Automatic generation

Module generator

Application control of the module

Shared Data

User interface

The current version of AVS (AVS5) was based upon their own graphical user interface, LUI. AVS6 will now have a Motif user interface on the workstation platforms and AVS6 is being planned for release onto PC platforms with the first release based on Windows NT and later versions for Windows 95 and DOS.

Compilation

Debugging support

• An AVS module can be debugged using the native system debugging tools;
• Facilities to track down problems with memory allocation errors;
• Verification of the integrity of geometry data types a user has built;
• Modules exist which output the data representations to ASCII files;

Training