The pLab project: an extensible, architecture for physiaclly-based simulation

Abstract

Pluggable architectures have become a popular means of creating extensible applications. Traditional plugins however are mostly fixed, single-purpose extensions that have only limited capabilities. We present a framework that allows the building of pluggable applications in which the plugins mainly deliver flexible building blocks or components that are put in place using an XML document. This way, the XML document actually serves as a blueprint of the component layout, instantiating the behavior of an application. The framework is to be used in combination with the ongoing research in the domain of physically-based modeling and simulation.