PyBOINC: simplified BOINC application development in Python (design doc)

This is a proposed design for making developing BOINC applications as simple as possible. PyBOINC provides a master/slave model: the master runs on the server, and the slave is distributed.

Here's an example, which sums the squares of integers from 1 to 100. The application consists of three files. The first, app_types.py, defines the input and output types:

class Input:
    def __init__(self, arg):
        self.value = arg

class Output:
    def __init__(self, arg):
        self.value = arg;

The second file, app_master.py, is the master program:

import app_types

def make_calls():
    for i in range(100):
       input = Input(i);
       pyboinc_call('app_slave.py', input)

def handle_result(output):
    sum += output.value

sum = 0

pyboinc_master(make_calls, handle_result)

print "The answer is %d", sum

The third file, pyboinc_slave.py, is the slave function:

import app_types

input = pyboinc_get_input()
output = Output(input.value*input.value);
pyboinc_return_output(output);

The procedure for running this program is:

• Create a BOINC project
• Run a script ops/py_boinc.php that configures the project to use PyBOINC
• Set an environment var PYBOINC_DIR to the root directory of the project
• Create a directory (anywhere) containing the above files
• In that directory, type

  python app_master.py
  

• This command may take a long time. If it's aborted via ^C, it may be repeated later. In that case no new jobs are created, and the master waits for the completion of the remaining slaves.