1. A method for creating and executing a computer dataflow, comprising: (a) defining a plurality of components based on an input, an output, metadata and a sub-interpreter, each of said components representing a computer-implemented computational process that is performed on one or more inputs to the component and that generates one or more outputs based on a predefined computational algorithm; (b) providing a graphical user interface that allows a user to visually create the computer dataflow on a user display by selecting one or more components from a library of said components, and graphically connecting one or more input terminals of a first of the selected components with one or more output terminals of at least a second of the selected components; where, for each selected component, the one or more input terminals graphically correspond to the one or more inputs to the predefined computational algorithm associated with the component, and the one or more output terminals graphically correspond to the one or more outputs generated by the predefined computational algorithm associated with the component; and (c) without intervention from the user, distributing execution of the plurality of said selected components across a plurality of machines during performance of the computer dataflow; where the selected component automatically executes upon receiving a minimum number of inputs; where the metadata associated with each of the plurality of components is configured to describe at least one of the input, the output, the sub-interpreter, and data files of each of the associated components; and where the sub-interpreter associated with each of the plurality of components is configured to describe at least the computational algorithm invoked during execution of the associated component.