...
Naturally, the exchange items should not be limited to a particular network, but for the purpose of planning the migration it is easier to start out with a specific case and then generalize this case when it comes to the more detailed design.
Wrapping
The OpenMI standard was designed to allow easy migration of existing model engines. The
standard is implemented in C# running under the .NET framework. Almost all existing model
engines are implemented in other programming languages, such as Fortran, Pascal, C and
C++. In order to bridge the gap between the different technologies and to minimize the
amount of changes needed to be made to the engine core a wrapping pattern will be the most
attractive choice in most cases.
This chapter describes the process of wrapping and the generic wrapper that is provided by
the OpenMI Software Development Kit.
A general wrapping pattern
Wrapping basically means that you create a C# class that implements the
ILinkableComponent interface. This wrapper will communicate internally with your engine
core. The wrapper will appear to the users as a 'black box', which means that all
communication will take place through the ILinkebleComponent interface (Figure 5).