TY - CHAP A1 - Gorlatch, Sergei A1 - Dünnweber, Jan ED - Getov, Vladimir ED - Laforenza, Domenico ED - Reinefeld, Alexander T1 - From Grid Middleware to Grid Applications BT - Bridging the Gap with HOCs T2 - Future Generation Grids N2 - This paper deals with the problem of application programming for grid systems that combine heterogeneous data and computational resources via the Internet. We argue that grid programming is still too complex because of the big gap between the currently used and anticipated grid middleware, (e.g., Globus or WSRF) and the application level. We suggest that this gap needs to be closed in future-generation grids and propose a novel approach to bridging the gap by using Higher-Order Components (HOCs) — recurring patterns of parallel behaviour that are provided to the user as program building blocks with pre-packaged implementation and middleware setup. The presentation is illustrated with a simple case study of computing fractal images. Our experiments demonstrate that HOCs can simplify grid application programming significantly, without serious performance loss. KW - components KW - Grid services KW - Globus toolkit KW - mobile code Y1 - 2005 SN - 978-0-387-27935-0 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-29445-2_13 SP - 241 EP - 261 PB - Springer Verlag CY - Berlin ER -