User interfaces for computational science: a domain specific language for OOMMF embedded in Python

TL;DR

This paper introduces a Python-based domain specific language for micromagnetic simulations embedded in OOMMF, enhancing flexibility, reproducibility, and ease of use for computational science applications.

Contribution

It presents a novel Python interface for OOMMF that simplifies simulation configuration and execution, improving usability and reproducibility in computational micromagnetics.

Findings

The Python DSL effectively configures and runs micromagnetic simulations.

The approach improves flexibility and reproducibility of computational studies.

Code implementation is open source and publicly available.

Abstract

Computer simulations are used widely across the engineering and science disciplines, including in the research and development of magnetic devices using computational micromagnetics. In this work, we identify and review different approaches to configuring simulation runs: (i) the re-compilation of source code, (ii) the use of configuration files, (iii) the graphical user interface, and (iv) embedding the simulation specification in an existing programming language to express the computational problem. We identify the advantages and disadvantages of different approaches and discuss their implications on effectiveness and reproducibility of computational studies and results. Following on from this, we design and describe a domain specific language for micromagnetics that is embedded in the Python language, and allows users to define the micromagnetic simulations they want to carry out in a flexible way. We have implemented this micromagnetic simulation description language together with a computational backend that executes the simulation task using the Object Oriented MicroMagnetic Framework (OOMMF). We illustrate the use of this Python interface for OOMMF by solving the micromagnetic standard problem 4. All the code is publicly available and is open source.