Abstract
A computer-assisted liaison system is discussed and proposed in this paper in a distributed problem solving environment (PSE) for partial differential equation (PDE) based problems. In our previous paper (Trans. JSCES No. 20010018, (2001)) we have proposed a concept of distributed problem solving environment, which consists of several modules. The modules are distributed on network-linked computers and are registered on the distributed-PSE server so that available modules are shown to users. The distributed PDEbased PSE inputs problem information, and outputs a program flow, a program source code and a document. In this problem solving process users find required PSE modules and design workflows to complete their problem solving tasks. In the distributed PSEs each module may be developed independently by engineers or scientists or users, and old modules are also re-usable. One of key issues in the distributed PSEs is connectivity among the distributed modules. In this paper we propose and construct a liaison system to connect modules. The computer-assisted module liaison system generates an adapter module among the distributed PSE modules. The adapter module generated by the module liaison system inputs output data from preceding modules and/or external modules, and connect the data to the input data for the next module. This module liaison system extends the potential capability of PSEs extraordinarily.
