itaps-parallel mesh adaptivity example for SC08

[Lori A. Diachin]

Hi Onkar,

We should chat about this example during the telecon today to decide the 
best way to go forward.  In general, the idea was to allow the students 
to work on their own and the instructors would wander around the room 
offering help as needed.  I had not really planned on presentations for 
the exercises, other than perhaps brief introductions.  I believe that 
this approach is possible for the other exercises, but it doesn't seem 
to me that it will work well for this one.  We should talk to today 
about how this would best fit in with the rest of the tutorial - the two 
options I see are 1) to present this as a detailed example during 
section on adaptivity near the end of the lecture and before most of the 
hands on session, or 2) present this at the end of the afternoon after 
students have had a chance to work the rest of the exercises. 

While you won't be talking about main.cc, I do think it's a useful file 
for students to look at (I found it useful at any rate).  It follows the 
skeleton you describe in the notes, and as I said, it uses many of the 
functions the students will already know and be comfortable with, so it 
provides useful reinforcement of those ideas.  I would like to find some 
way to highlight the main function - even if you don't move the file, 
can you move the main function up to the beginning of the file and point 
to it in your session notes?

Lori

Onkar Sahni wrote:
> Lori,
>
> I appreciate your efforts in looking into mesh-adaptivity example and
> providing detailed feedback. See my comments below majority of which are
> fixes (my comments are inlined and starts with **, it seems like my email
> client has jumbled some text from your message while replying to it):
>
>   
>>  - can you move the note/iMeshMA.README.SC08 up one level and rename it
>> HandsOn_Session.txt to be consistent with the other exercises
>>     
>
> ** Fixed, see HowTo.txt and HandsOn_Session.txt under:
> /usr/local/itaps/mesh_refinement/
>
>   
>>   - can you move the main.cc file and main Makefile up as well?  In
>> addition, I think it would be good if you could list the main function
>>     
> as the first (and maybe only) thing in the file.  By the time the
> students get to this point they will recognize many of the operations
> and functions that you use there, which will help them get comfortable
> with this example.
>
> ** This will be difficult for me as it will require (non-trivial) changes
> in Makefile and (iMeshMA's) svn repository structure. I do not plan to
> talk about main.cc at all. I will just focus on three iMeshP calls as
> mentioned in HandsOn_Session_iMeshMA.txt.
>
>   
>>   - I find the text description in the notes to be a little sparse.  I
>> was able to follow the directions and run all the test cases, so that
>>     
> was good. (As a general comment, we should remind folks how to set the
> display for visualization of results.)    You talk about specific iMeshP
> functions that you focus on, but there's nothing really to do except go
> look at the function (also the first one has a typo - should be
>   
>> pushTagsEnt).  Can you tell me what you have in mind?
>>     
>
> ** I plan to go through the code and show how three specific iMeshP calls
> are used. I plan to spent some time in description and discussions related
> to these three iMeshP calls.
>
>   
>>  - I like the description of the overall skeleton of the mesh adapt
>> service, but think that might be better earlier in this file (before the
>>     
> description of the particular iMeshP functions).  I'm not sure I see a
> need for ~~ vs ~... I'd just list all the steps as equals
>
> ** Fixed.
>
>   
>>  - I don't understand the notation for detailed iMeshP function
>> listings.. what's the difference between +++, single quotes, and === ...
>>     
> also, you use a lot of iMesh functions as well, but don't mention
> them... why not?   As a minor comment, the caps/lowercase letters aren't
> consistent with the header files.
>
> ** Fixed (I want to keep focus on iMeshP for various reasons).
>
>   
>>  - It would be useful to explicitly say what you want the students to
>> get out of this exercise.  Are there things they should particularly be
>>     
> looking for in the functions you highlight..  are you hoping they'll get
> a sense of how to write/use a mesh adapt service?
>
> ** This can cover many things, for example, basic understanding of three
> iMeshP calls, a basic demonstration of interoperability, promotion of a
> mesh-adapt service from ITAPS to scientific computing app. and showing a
> mesh modification app. how iMeshP fulfills it needs for parallel mesh
> adaptivity... we can discuss more on this tomorrow during our tele-con.
>
> I am planning to talk/discuss during mesh adaptivity example that will
> allow me to describe things. This is the reason why I wanted to get an
> idea on time distribution for each hands-on session that will help me to
> plan my discussions.
>
> If I missed on any of your concerns/comments then please let me know.
>
> Thanks,
> Onkar
>
>   
>> Perhaps we can talk about this more tomorrow during the telecon...
>>
>> Lori
>>
>> Onkar Sahni wrote:
>>     
>>> I have updated mesh adaptivity example (based on useful feedback from you
>>> guys and updates to database libraries) under:
>>> /usr/local/itaps/mesh_refinement
>>> (see /usr/local/itaps/mesh_refinement/notes/iMeshMA.README.SC08 to
>>>       
> compile, to run and for other details).
>   
>>> Please feel free to try it out and let me know your comments.
>>> Thanks,
>>> Onkar
>>>       
>>>> I have setup mesh adaptivity example under:
>>>> /usr/local/itaps/mesh_refinement
>>>> See /usr/local/itaps/mesh_refinement/notes/iMeshMA.README.SC08 to
>>>>         
>>> compile
>>>       
>>>> and run (and other details).
>>>> Source code (clean version) is under:
>>>> /usr/local/itaps/mesh_refinement/src
>>>> A build is provided under:
>>>> /usr/local/itaps/mesh_refinement/build
>>>> Please try it out and let me know your comments.
>>>> Thanks,
>>>> Onkar
>>>>         
>>     
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