Again, the group emphasizes an evolutionary path that does not require massive expenditures or massive retraining to begin experimenting and benefiting from parallel computing. Thirdly, the group employs all the tools available on the PC, including multimedia, to develop an environment on the PC that encourages people to experiment with parallel computing. The text is based on the idea that many parallel programs use common software archetypes or templates. Once they understand the archetype, they can look at several applications that use the archetype. These applications emphasize how the algorithm for the application is developed from the archetype in a systematic fashion.
Programmers can also browse the text in other ways.
For example, programmers can look at a given application and identify different archetypes used to solve that application. The text is interactive, uses animation to help explain parallel algorithms, and uses voice annotations to allow programmers to focus on animations while listening to an explanation. The programs in the electronic text can be executed on a network of PCs, so there is no problem of working on different platforms.