GridShell is designed to incorporate grid concepts into command shell environments. In this article, the author describes the motivation for GridShell and provides a high-level description of the extensions to the language interface the tool provides. GridShell extends the TCSH and BASH syntaxes. Users familiar with both will be able to write scripts that include these grid shell language extensions, and orchestrate and coordinate the execution of programs across the grid.
That is definatly one of the coolest projects I have seen in a while.
Even more importantly, though. Many grid applications can easily be seperated into the logic, and the actual usage on the grid itself. This allows to easily have the actual grid-specific commands in small understandable shell scripts and leave the programs with the logic independant on the grid.
Tcsh ! Urge to kill … rising. ( http://www.sanger.ac.uk/Users/jgrg/csh_whynot.html )
Seriously though sounds cool. Anyone have good links on practical applications of grid computing – I haven’t really been paying attention.
I wonder if they’re considering Mac OS X support?
Probably not, as Xgrid has nothing to do with ‘Grid computing’. It is a cool appealing name, but it only provides a way to distribute some computation. The actual ‘Grid computing’ is about providing a complete distributed infrastructure for computations, data storage *and* organisations. And of course, about doing so *securely*.
So even though Xgrid is a nice and useful software (i do use it), it definitely doesn’t address the same needs, and despite the name, is *not* a Grid toolkit.
If you want some information on Grids, and in particular the Globus toolkit, there is a free book online:
http://publib-b.boulder.ibm.com/Redbooks.nsf/0/94d3fc239d7440a88525…
Regards.