Unlike other application areas, the numerical computing community has not really embraced object-oriented design and programming. The paper describes a very good application of object-oriented programming to vortex particle methods--an advanced and significant application. In fact, it makes two significant contributions: an example of how to apply object-oriented design and programming to a numerical problem, and a software package with an infrastructure that allows--through object-oriented design--easy experimentation with new algorithms.

The paper gives an overview of the techniques for solving fluid-flow problems with vortex particle methods. This is helpful for understanding the design of the hierarchical solution and for assisting readers who are not familiar with vortex particle methods. The sections on the object-oriented design of the program solution require some previous knowledge of object-oriented design and inheritance. However, with minimal background, the discussion is very easy to understand.